Glasgow’s tactics for 2014

Close scrutiny of the bid guidelines and resourceful venue planning won the bid for Glasgow. Derek Casey, interim chief executive of Glasgow 2014 Ltd., speaks to Host City about how these plans will be put into action

When the news broke on 14 November 2008 that the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) had chosen Glasgow to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond’s address to the Scottish Parliament encapsulated the remarkable sense of privilege associated with hosting this event. “These Games are a ringing endorsement in this nation and its people from the entire Commonwealth. Scotland’s athletes – and no less, Scotland’s people – must use this achievement as an inspiration and be confident in their own potential, and in the unlimited potential of this nation,” he said.

Derek Casey was director of Glasgow’s
bid and is currently chief executive of the
authority responsible for delivering the Games

Although this was in reality just the beginning, Glasgow had already travelled a long way to get there, through an exhaustive bidding process. The bidding process had changed considerably since Delhi had won the bid to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games. At the heart of the Glasgow’s successful bid was a careful scrutiny of these new guidelines.

Derek Casey, who was bid director for the event and is currently interim chief executive of Glasgow 2014 Ltd., the authority responsible for delivering the Games, explains how the changes in the bidding system defined their strategy: “The process is now very similar to that adopted for the Olympics; there’s a much more prescriptive approach. What I welcomed was the fact that you had a much more structured approach to the bidding process, and our bid document followed that fairly rigidly.”

Before Glasgow’s successful bid, there was a more flexible arrangement. Cities bidding for the Games could decide for themselves the key points that they wanted to address. But after the Delhi bid, the CGF set down 16 core themes – against which they demanded answers. Within these themes were about 650 different questions that the bid team had to answer, on subjects ranging from politics and economic legacy through to venues, the athletes’ village, transport and culture.

This might not sound like a procedure that all would relish, but it was one that Glasgow accepted wholeheartedly. “What we particularly welcomed was the fact that the CGF had asked us to comment on the things that they thought would go towards a good structure and process for the Games. And we followed that through.”

The decisive factor
Although the bidding procedure made a number of specific demands, it still allowed scope for a host city to highlight aspects it thought to be the most important. When answering the CGF’s questions, the Glasgow bid team kept a clear focus on one key issue: the athletes. Casey says: “Every decision we had to make, we thought: ‘what’s the best for the athletes?’, whether it was transport to and from the village or the opening ceremony. So we kept going back to a very closely-defined, athlete-centred Games.”

Glasgow was jubilant when it heard that its bid had been
successful. In the middle of the picture, punching the air,
is Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond

The plans place the athlete’s village very close to Celtic Park stadium, where the opening ceremony will be held. For the first time in the history of the Commonwealth Games, athletes will be able to walk to the opening ceremony. Not only will this prevent the common scenario of athletes being held outside for several hours – it will also allow more athletes to take part in the ceremony. And as over 90 per cent of the venues are within a 20-minute drive of the athletes’ village, athletes will spend much less time travelling and more time concentrating on the competition.

Existing venues
An impressive 70 per cent of venues scheduled to host events in the 2014 Commonwealth Games have already been built. Casey says: “I subscribe very strongly to the view that cities really should think twice about bidding unless they’ve got at least 40 per cent of the venues already in place. I think it shows a strong commitment to sport, that we’ve already got a lot of facilities for the community. It’s quite difficult to go from a very low percentage of venue provision to 100 per cent in a defined time period. This is why, when I first got involved in the Glasgow bid, I thought it was so important that we had such a high percentage in place already.”

The Games will make use of the city’s three major football stadiums: the national football stadium, Hampden Park; the Rangers Football Club ground, Ibrox Stadium; and the Celtic Football Club ground, Celtic Park.

Hampden Park will be converted to host the track and field athletics and the closing ceremony. Instead of being typically rectangular, the football stadium is natural bowl-shaped, which suits athletics. But although the stadium may be the right shape, it is not quite the right size for track and field events, so the conversion will pose unique challenges. “It’s not quite wide enough or long enough to get a track in,” Casey explains. “So we are going to infill the whole of the stadium to a height of about 1.2m – so it will cover the first five or six rows of seats, so the track will effectively be on top of a platform. We are raising the ground level so that you get enough width to put a track in. This is an extraordinarily cost-effective way of providing for track and field, which we will only use once for such a major event.”

The method planned is taken from motorway construction techniques. This will not only create a very solid structure for the Games but will also bear in mind post-Games use of the material, which will be used to build roads once the Games is over.

Another advantage of this modification is that it can be made in advance. By putting a new pitch on top of the platform, fixtures can take place as scheduled; although raising the ground level will reduce the capacity from 53,000 to 46,000.

As returfing the pitch afterwards is a relatively simple and inexpensive process, the whole procedure promises to be highly cost-effective – particularly as compared to the cost of building a purpose-built new venue. “This is one example of the attention to detail that we have made to make sure that we don’t leave ‘white elephants’, in terms of venues after the Games have taken place.” By using Ibrox for the rugby sevens tournament, the 50,000 seat stadium where Glasgow Rangers play, the organisers will again be making good use of an existing facility. And hosting the opening ceremony in Glasgow’s largest stadium – the 60,000-seat Celtic Park – means that the ceremony will be split from the track and field events for the first time in Commonwealth Games history, to make the most of the city’s existing sporting infrastructure. “We are fortunate that we have some very versatile venues. Ibrox is in itself long enough to fit the whole pitch in and we are fortunate that this is the case.” Indoor sports events will also make use of Glasgow’s venues. Kelvin Hall, built in 1927, will be used to host the boxing tournament. The facility has already been used to host a number of world boxing events, so it contains all the features necessary for a Commonwealth Games event.

Another example is the use of the Scottish Exhibition Centre. Built in the late 1970s, the venue has continued to be upgraded since then to host various sporting events from badminton to motocross. The Scottish Exhibition Centre will be used for five different sports: judo, wrestling, gymnastics, netball and weightlifting. It will also be the main broadcasting centre – again making good use of existing facilities.

Diving is a highlight of the Commonwealth Games, but Glasgow does not have a big enough diving facility to host this event. But instead of building a facility for which there is minimal local need, the Commonwealth Games will use an existing diving facility at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh, which hosted the event in 1970. “We are making sure that we understand the needs of the athletes when they are in Edinburgh. We’re going to use the adjacent University Halls of Residence as an additional athletes’ village, so that if people want a rest or stay overnight between competitions they can stay there.”

New facilities
Although the majority of events will be staged in existing venues, the 2014 Commonwealth Games will also make use of new facilities in Glasgow – some of which had been committed for development before the bid process began. One such complex, consisting of an indoor cycle velodrome and adjacent indoor sports arena, will be built at a cost of around USD 195m (GBP 100m). “This complex has been designed in-house by the Glasgow City Council, which has a very strong reputation in the design of sports facilities,” says Casey.

In total, 20 per cent of venues planned for the Commonwealth Games will be new facilities that had been commissioned prior to the bid. Another example of one of these is an existing commitment to build a 12,500 seat cultural facility, designed by architect Lord Norman Foster, for pop concerts and classical music within the Scottish Exhibition Centre. During the Games, this will be used for gymnastics. Again, this structure will involve around USD 195m (GBP 100m) of construction costs.

Although swimming events will be taking place in an existing facility, Tollcross Leisure Centre, a second 50m swimming pool will be built in the Centre for warm-ups during the Games. “There is a huge need for additional water space in Glasgow so that will help community development as well.”

In addition to the 70 per cent of existing venues and the 20 per cent of new venues already planned before the bid, the Commonwealth Games will bring a remaining 10 per cent of brand new venues built for the Games. The first of these, a new hockey centre, is going to be built in the centre of Glasgow at a cost of about USD 5.8m (GBP 3m), containing two water-based artificial grass pitches.

The other purpose-built facility will be a new international mountain bike course, which will be built about 15 to 20 minutes from the city centre. “Mountain biking requires very steep inclines and a mixture of landscapes, such as open moorland and woodland. There is a place just south of Glasgow called Cathkin Braes; that’s where the new international course will be built over the next few years.” As these facilities will stay in place after the Games, it is vital to leave a worthwhile legacy for the city. “The Games are really important – they last for 11 to 12 days – but in terms of developing new facilities it’s important to remember that they’ll be there for 20 to 40 years. It’s really important that you have that double planning approach for the Games and for the community after the Games as well.”

The rewards of hosting
The economic benefits of major games fall into two categories: short-term and long-term. “There are some short-term benefits such as further employment within the city and the country,” says Casey. “The Games will have a net benefit of about 1,200 permanent full times jobs coming to Scotland, from running new facilities to the new restaurants and bars that will spring up. The Games will also develop a four per cent increase in tourism year on year. That ‘s a significant number in terms of tourists coming to Scotland.”

But for most major Games, the real economic benefits arrive many years after the Games have taken place. These benefits derive from a change in a city’s image on the international playing field. “Glasgow has changed enormously over the years but it still needs to promote itself on the world stage. This is an opportunity for Glasgow to promote itself more on the world stage and I believe that a change in perception is the greatest economic benefit. With that change in perception, that leads to greater inward investment which leads to more jobs.”

In the 1970s, Barcelona was not considered to be a major city in Europe. The 1992 Olympics changed all that. Since the Games, there has been a massive change in the city’s fortunes. “On a smaller scale perhaps, Glasgow may well go the same way. Glasgow was and is a great world city, but we do need to remind the world of that occasionally – and the Games are part of that process.” There are also benefits for the community. “We need 15,000 volunteers. The experience of very active volunteering acts as a form of qualification, particularly for young people. So there are some personal legacies for the community. There are also health benefits, through people’s attitude to physical activity, that are also very important.”

The community has shown enormous support for the Games during the bid. The bid team set up a system on website asking people and organisations to sign up and support the bid, to which 1.3 million people signed up. In the final public opinion poll, only six per cent of the population were against the Games coming to Glasgow. “There are two reasons for why this support is so important for Glasgow. One is that the visitors, the athletes and the officials will feel welcome when they come here. There’s an economic argument as well. With that level of enthusiasm it should be relatively straightforward to turn that into high ticket sales for the events. That means full houses, and that usually means good performance by the athletes as well.”

Casey has a great deal of faith in Glasgow’s ability to deliver the goods for the benefit of the city and its inhabitants. “Because we already have so much in place we don’t have to pay a huge amount of attention to the construction of venues. So what it does allow us to do is to focus much more on the ‘softer’ issues, in terms of what the games will do for the community and the country.” The Commonwealth Games is an extremely important sports event for Scotland, not least because it’s the only multi-sports event in which Scotland takes part as a nation and not as part of the United Kingdom. Scotland has competed in every CW since 1930 when they first started and viewing figures for the Games are always very high.

Scottish athletes have been competing at the highest level extremely well in recent years and they will be expected to make the most of the opportunity to compete in their favourite event in front of a home crowd. In the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Scotland scooped its highest haul of medals ever – 30 medals – and went on to almost equal this in Melbourne 2006 with 29 medals. Little surprise then that Casey is confident in country’s chances. “As long as we invest heavily in sports over the next few years then I’ve every reason to believe that on home soil Scotland should do extremely well.”