Potential destabilisation of fiscal positions and increased debt are some of the likely outcomes for the government to consider should they prioritise the country's potential bid to host the Commonwealth Games in 2026.
While the offer to take over from the original host included a £100 million investment intended to "support local delivery and legacy planning" for the games, economist Dr Geoffrey Williams said the country was not financially ready.
He said there were no feasible strategies to benefit from sports without taking resources from other priorities.
"It (the £100 million incentive) is a drop in the ocean."
Williams said the best example was to look at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, the United Kingdom.
The total short-term impact for the games in Birmingham, he said, was estimated at £870 million in total or £765 million net.
"A financial outlay of £669 million was recorded and most of the net impact came from this rather than from tourism income."
Williams said the games then added value because it leveraged private and public investments and made use of facilities in place, which included some from the 2012 London Olympics.
"Malaysia does not have the facilities in place and will have to build and renovate quickly."
Williams said the estimated cost for the games in Victoria, Australia, was A$7 billion (RM21 billion) and the sum would be similar in Malaysia.
The estimated returns from the Birmingham Games, for example, he added, would not cover that and management and governance issues in Malaysia would make the idea of hosting the games "a non-starter, unfortunately".
If the government decided to pursue the opportunity, Williams stressed that the financial costs could expand beyond renovating sports facilities and would include upgrading transportation, accommodation and security.
If the government planned to host the games it would only crowd out private investment, he said, where wastage, leakage and corruption were obvious risks too.
The sports community had offered a mixed reaction.
Previously, sports analyst Datuk Dr Pekan Ramli said to pull off the event in the current economic situation would place decision-makers in a tricky situation.
While he did not doubt the country's ability, he noted that the timing was not ideal.
Sports commissioner Suhardi Alias had also opposed the move led by Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tan Sri Norza Zakaria in rescuing the games and treating it as a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity".
Norza reportedly said that hosting the games would involve "minimal government spending" apart from bringing significant socio-economic benefits to the country.
Suhardi argued if Malaysia were to opt out of hosting the games after signing the contract, the potential financial implications could be significant.
"It would translate to over RM1 billion. So, the question then arises: is such a substantial expense worth it?"
Former National Sports Institute chief executive officer Datuk Dr Ramlan Abdul Aziz, however, said the country must be brave to face the risks in accepting the offer.
Although hosting the games would incur high expenditure, he said, Malaysia would not progress if it tended to seek objections in shouldering such challenges.
"Any country in the world will only progress if it considers the positive and dare to take risks."