Steve Milton: Unidentified donor ready to donate millions for Hamilton to land 2026 Commonwealth Games
Someone out there believes, really believes, in the 2026 Commonwealth Games for Hamilton and is putting serious money where their mouth is ... or at least soon will be.
The Spectator has learned that an as-yet-unidentified donor will provide a multimillion dollar endowment to seed a private-sector funding war chest to help bring the Games here.
We don't know who the donor is but we do know it's a massive coup - both in hard economics and as a symbolic magnet for similar private sector donations - for the volunteer group mounting the 2026 bid.
And it should resonate loudly with the public as the reality' stage of seeking the Games begins Monday morning at a city council committee meeting where the bid committee will open the official process of acquiring approval in principle for a 2026 bid.
To respect the wishes of the donating company, which prefers to make its own formal announcement soon, the committee will not reveal the identity of the benefactor nor the size of the donation. But a spokesperson for Hamilton 2026 Commonwealth Games Bid Corporation confirmed that it is well into seven figures.
The donation will go into a private sector trust fund, which Hamilton '26 will unveil within two weeks.
PJ Mercanti, of Hamilton '26 which pivoted from the original bid for the centenary 2030 Games, says the committee is ecstatic about the first donation, which demonstrates the private sector's significant commitment to this game-changing community initiative.
The hope is that this new fund will also serve as a springboard to secure further investments. We can leverage this early momentum from other private sector and institutional partners who are committed to this Games effort."
The goal is for the fund to eventually hit $100 million in private sector contributions. It would be used to support not just sports but all aspects of the Games movement - including affordable housing and wellness' initiatives - but could be spent only if Hamilton actually gets the Games.
In our work around pandemic relief as the focus of 2026, we understood the importance of significant private sector involvement," Lou Frapporti of Hamilton '26, told The Spectator. We're very excited to celebrate our private-sector champions who see the Games as a catalyst for both economic growth and social impact."
Even when the target was 2030, the bid committee had stressed there had to be major private sector investment, but that emphasis has since heightened significantly. The 2026 bid will be smaller than it was for 2030, more regionalized and shifts the main attention from sport to Hamilton's post-pandemic recovery.
The new legacy trust fund and fourth sector" contributions are early beacons of that shift. McMaster University confirmed that it would sink money into the on-campus Games aquatic centre and Canada Basketball seeks to put a national training centre here.
And over the past few months the bid committee has received hundreds of hours of free help from the international governing body, the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), and from Commonwealth Sport Canada (CSC), which also backs Hamilton as the sole Canadian representative in the all-comers bid process for 2030, should 2026 not prove viable here.
Hamilton '26 will present letters of exclusive support from both organizations on Monday. The CGF has sidestepped its own protocols in guaranteeing Hamilton the '26 Games if it can make all the necessary financial arrangements and in promising continued organizational help to Hamilton in completing its bid until the end of September. By then, it would it need approvals in principle from city, provincial and federal governments.
The CGF has invested significant time and dedicated resources to support Hamilton in the development of its proposals," the letter from CGF president Dame Louise Martin says in part. Due to the escalating importance of securing a host city, the CGF commits to continuing to provide this same support on the process for hosting the 2026 Games specifically to the CSC and Hamilton."
The approval in principle would not require a specific financial commitment from the city, Frapporti emphasized. But negotiations on financial details would then begin among the local bid group, and city, provincial and federal governments.
Although council endorsed the original 2030 bid in principle, this will be the first time it is formally asked about 2026. The volunteer group has been proceeding on its own and has even self-financed an independent local economic impact study.
Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com