The Loop: Victoria enters Commonwealth Games hosting negotiations, commentators called out for 'Māori' mispronunciation, Van Jefferson's hasty Super Bowl exit

Hello. It's Wednesday, February 16 and you're reading The Loop, a quick wrap-up of today's news.

Let's start here

The Commonwealth Games are looking likely to return to Australia for the second time in eight years, with the Victorian government entering exclusive negotiations with the organising body for the 2026 event.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the Games would be primarily hosted in regional Victoria.

• An arts and culture festival would be held in tandem with the Games
• The Australian Olympic Committee has welcomed Victoria's bid
• Australia last hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2018 on the Gold Coast

Mr Andrews said some regional locations like Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo already had some facilities to host events, but more infrastructure funding would be needed.

"There would need to be further investments made. And that's how I see them — not as a cost," he said.

What else is going on

• Former NZ and Māori representative Issac Luke says there "needs to be more respect shown" after a Fox Sports commentator repeatedly mispronounced "Māori" during Saturday's All Stars match. Māori men's coach David Kidwell says it will be important to rectify the pronunciation or hire the right commentators before the next game
• The federal government’s top economists admit they do not know when lower unemployment levels will finally trigger a wages boom following a decade of stagnant wage growth, but officials remain optimistic Australia is the closest it has been in a decade to improving wages

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What Australia has been searching for online

• NCIS Sydney. The long-running crime drama is coming to Australia, with Paramount+ and Network 10 announcing the release of the first spin-off version to be set outside the US
• Alexei Navalny. The Russian opposition leader and Kremlin critic faces more time in prison if he's convicted in a new trial on fraud and contempt charges

One more thing

Super Bowl celebrations are pretty extravagant — there's confetti, there's crowds, there's crying, there's champagne, all that.

But the Rams have released footage of the moment their wide receiver Van Jefferson realised he'd have to skip the afterparty because his wife had gone into labour during the game.

The news resulted in a pretty quick sprint out the door: 

Van's wife, Samaira, was at the Super Bowl but was carried out on a stretcher before the game ended. She told the Rams not to tell her husband if their second child decided to arrive mid-match.

The 25-year-old was on the field celebrating with his young daughter when someone finally told him: 

"We gotta go quick!"

Samaira shared a video of the on-field reveal on Instagram with the caption "such a special moment".

"Just glad they listened to me and waited until the END of the game to tell him," she posted.

You're up to date

Thanks for joining us. See you tomorrow.

ABC/wires