Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth bid officials are calling on all Scots to help win the 2014 Commonwealth Games for Glasgow, reports the Daily Record. Officials want 250,000 people across Scotland to sign a petition to be launched Monday in the hopes that public support will “stun” the Commonwealth Games Federation.
Supporters will be able to sign the petition by text message, e-mail, phone or letter. The petition will be used to lobby the federation at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in March.
A source told the Daily Record, “we want our representatives to go to Australia and show that thousands of people support our bid. That is important for the federation because they want to know the public will turn out to watch the events. It also sends the signal this is a Scottish bid. It is not a UK bid or exclusively a Glasgow bid”.
There will be a Web site launched to update supporters on the bid’s progress.
Although Glasgow would host the Games, organizers insist the whole country would also benefit.
Organizers believe they are about a year ahead of rival bidders Halifax Canada and Abuju Nigeria.
If Scotland wins the bid it would be centred on Hampden Park. A false floor, eight feet above pitch level, would be built to make space for a wider running track.
Swimming would take place at Tollcross, netball at the SECC and bowls at Kelvingrove Park.
A ten million pound National Indoor Arena is to be built in the east end of Glasgow and another facility at Torglen.
The 6,000 athletes would live in an athletes’ village of 1500 to 2500 homes to be built in either Dalmarnock or Sighthill, which would be sold or taken over by a housing association after the Games are over.
The event would cost an estimated 250 million pounds but according to the newspaper experts have claimed it would bring an 81 million pound windfall and boost Scotland’s reputation as a home for major international events. Also five out of six of the 1200 jobs created by hosting the Games would be in Glasgow.
Louise Martin, chair of the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland and secretary general of the Commonwealth Games Federation says, “we’re up against Canada and Nigeria, two big countries. We need to really sell Glasgow and Scotland as the perfect host – a small but friendly national which would benefit the Commonwealth Games’ reputation – and we don’t want to leave anything to chance. This is one race we don’t want to lose.
“We are a nation in our own right, but I know Canada will probably say we’re part of the UK, who had the Games last time and will have the Olympics in 2012, so why should we have the Games in 2014. Our argument is that the last few Games have gone to big countries”.
She says, “to me the Commonwealth Games is so completely different from the Olympics. It’s family-orientated, it’s friendly, but it’s still competitive. What’s also good about it is the intermingling in the athletes’ village where there’s one common language and everybody is happy to speak to each other in English”.
She added, “I hope our athletes do well for themselves and for Scotland, and show the rest of the Commonwealth how friendly we are. They are our prime ambassadors for 2014. They’re our front line”.
