Bass Coast Shire Council Mayor Michael Whelan has given evidence to the Senate hearing investigating the cancellation of the 2026 Commonwealth Games.
Cr Whelan accepted an invitation to appear at the hearing in Melbourne on Monday.
The Council has previously revealed to Bass Coast ratepayers that the State Government's decision to cancel the Games torpedoed an innovative athlete hosting plan that was set to inject millions of dollars into the region - the majority to local businesses.
Planning was advanced and Council was poised to announce a pre-Games athletes' village in the region for teams from Wales and Scotland.
The hub would have hosted 350 athletes and support teams at Silverwater Resort in San Remo and be fully funded by the visiting teams.
Cr Whelan told this week's hearing he was happy with the regional focus of the Games, but when Bass Coast was not chosen by the Government to host events, that Council was keen to host athletes to acclimatise in Bass Coast pre-Games.
He confirmed council engaged consultants and local suppliers and worked on arrangements with the City of Casey to host athletes and bus them to venues for events.
"We had two countries on the hook, so to speak, the value of those contracts … were in the range of $3 to $3.5 million," Cr Whelan said.
Cr Whelan said the Shire was in the process of meeting with Wales and Scotland when the announcement was made that the Games were cancelled.
If the deal had gone ahead it would have equated to 4,900 bed nights in the region.
"We were pretty excited by that and we were pretty pleased with ourselves about our innovative approach and really looking forward to bringing home the bacon," he said.
Cr Whelan says the overall estimated economic benefit would have been in the range of $5 to $5.8 million to Bass Coast.
