Glasgow’s bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games is awaiting a very important day Wednesday when all 240 pages of its Commonwealth Games bid will be submitted to the Commonwealth Games Federation in London. Another important date is June 10, when the official bid evaluation team arrives in Glasgow for a four-day inspection.
Meanwhile Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games bid officials are busily making sure they’ve done all their homework. Three days ago Glasgow 2014 bid director Derek Casey flew to Sierra Leone to make his final presentation and Louise Martin, chair of the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland, is in Malta Sunday making her final presentation.
The Scotsman reports that the two have made 68 face-to-face presentations to the 71 members of the Commonwealth.
According to the Scotsman the “financial aspects” of staging the Games won’t likely bring the kind of controversy of the London 2012 Olympics. The newspaper says the figures are relatively modest because of the few new sporting facilities required. But the real test comes when the bid becomes real if Glasgow wins.
Casey said he is confident that if Glasgow won it will not “do a London” and become mired in controversy and any recriminations. He says the two bids – Glasgow and London – are very different, “and the two budgets are very different. Our infrastructure is within one budget, 70 per cent of it is already there, 20 per cent is committed, and only 10 per cent is linked directly to the games. Therefore I think we can concentrate on the revenue costs, which we’ve put at 288 million pounds, and 80 per cent of that coming from the executive and 20 per cent from Glasgow. Most cost overruns for major games tend to be linked to capital expenditure. But because we have so little capital expenditure I think we’re confident that 288 million pounds is a very robust figure”.
The main capital project is the National Indoor Sports Arena (NISA) in the east end of Glasgow, incorporating a multi-sports hall, an athletic track, a velodrome and offices. The final costs have been approved but figures of not been released.
Meanwhile the Glasgow Rangers soccer team has agreed to let Glasgow 2014 use Ibrox stadium for the Rugby Sevens showcase, which will attract teams from 16 countries. Casey said Saturday, “the Rugby Sevens has proved massively popular at previous Commonwealth Games and we want to continue the tradition. More than 50,000 spectators watched the competition in Melbourne and we expect the same if the games come here. Ibrox is a perfect venue and Rangers could not have been more helpful. We would just need to take down the football nets and replace them with rugby posts”.
He said, “the stadium is in the heart of Glasgow and public transport links are excellent. Spectators could even walk from the city centre”.
Glasgow 2014 has another new sponsor. Communications specialists The Broadcasting Business has won the contract beating out 100 other companies.
Casey said, “on Wednesday we will submit our bid book which details our vision for the Games in Glasgow and Scotland. It is the culmination of 18 months of work and we want to ensure the handover ceremony in London is as strong as the document itself. We are determined to win this prize for Scotland”.
He added, “…we are delighted to have The Broadcasting Business on board. Their expertise will ensure we do everything in our power to achieve this goal”.
