HOST CITY 2015 Conference and Exhibition drew to a close in Glasgow on Tuesday following two days of open discussions exploring the challenges and benefits of bidding for and hosting major global events.

Now in its second year, Host City has firmly established itself as the leading EU-based meeting of cities and sports, business and cultural events. Under the theme ‘Creative Innovation’ HOST CITY 2015 brought together a unique collection of city leaders and cross-sector rights holders, event owners, suppliers and world class-speakers in the business of major international events.

High on the agenda on the final day of the conference was the issue of sustainability and how a multi-city approach to hosting could allow events of the future to remain viable and grow by increasing their reach.

Speaking on the UEFA EURO 2020 Championships, Stewart Regan, Chief Executive of the Scottish Football Association, host of four matches within the tournament, said: “As you can imagine it’s a huge logistical exercise - trying to plan for one country and several stadia is a big exercise but imagine doing that across 13 countries. 

“Planning the security, planning the logistics of moving sponsors, fans, and broadcasters around Europe - it’s a massive exercise. But the benefits of involving 13 countries, including some of the smaller countries who couldn’t host an event on their own, outweigh the challenges that the logistics present.”

Hampden Park in Glasgow will stage three UEFA Euro 2020 group stage games and one last 16 match.

Paul Bristow, Director of European Sports Championships Management argued that a multi-city approach could have sustainability benefits for future events. 

“The key word here is sustainability. We have too many white elephants,” he said. 

“We can be smarter in the way that we use existing facilities but at the same time still use major events to promote investment in sustainable new facilities that cities need. And if we can combine existing facilities in cities that will work together in partnership then I think that is a sustainable model.”

Paul Dunphy, Major Events Consultant for SportBusiness Intelligence and former Manager Event Prospecting and Bidding at Auckland Tourism Events & Economic Development said: “I think it is a long-term innovative approach. We had the Cricket World Cup in New Zealand and Australia recently and when you’re a small nation with minimal resources you need to be innovative. The [2015] Cricket World Cup was a great example of how multi-city, multi-national events are the future.”

Also under discussion was the critical question of how transport and security strategies contribute to the success of bidding for and hosting major events, including creating positive post-event legacies for cities. Malcolm Tarbitt, Executive Director – Safety and Security for the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS), said: “Major sporting events are short-term initiatives that have major long-term impact and they pose a tremendous challenge to host nations in terms of their image, sovereignty and integrity.

“In the past few years the cost of hosting major sporting events has increased astoundingly, including cost of security strategies and operations plans. The threat landscape is ever changing, ever evolving and the responsibility on bidding nations and organising committees is becoming ever greater to determine, manage and defend their security plans and budgets. To mitigate this you need to involve security upfront, as early as possible and apply a holistic and integrated approach to planning.”

Other leading speakers across the two-day conference included: Sir Craig Reedie CBE, Vice President, International Olympic Committee; Louise Martin CBE, President, Commonwealth Games Federation; David Grevemberg CBE, CEO, Commonwealth Games Federation; Brian Cookson OBE, President of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI); Sarah Lewis, Secretary General of the International Ski Federation (FIS) and the Association of International Winter Sports Federations; Alexander Koch, Corporate Communications Manager for FIFA; Hidetoshi Fujisawa, Executive Director of Communication and Engagement, Tokyo 2020; Simon Clegg CBE, former COO, Baku 2015 European Games; and Ali Russell, Director of Media and Strategic Partnerships, Formula E.

A delegation representing European Athletics arrived in Glasgow on Monday to spend two days in Scotland as part of evaluation visits to cities bidding for the 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships. 

And this is just one of a series of important meetings with international sports bodies scheduled for the year. 

Further visits from international federations will take place over the next two to three weeks, an EventScotland spokesperson told Host City, as Scotland continues to bid for and secure the right to stage some of the world’s most prestigious events.

Glasgow is hosting the 2018 European Sports Championship with Berlin. And Glasgow will also welcome the world of sports, business and cultural events to Host City 2016 on 16 and 17 November.

Glasgow is one of four potential hosts of the 2019 Indoor Athletics Championships and, if successful, would be the first Scottish destination for a European Athletics event in 15 years.

The other cities competing to host the 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships are Apeldoorn (Netherlands), Minsk (Belarus) and Torun (Poland). 

Evaluation site visits are underway during February and March, before the Evaluation Commission files a report to the European Athletics Council.

The 2017 European Athletics Indoor Championships will take place in Belgrade, Serbia.

The Council will vote on which city will host the 2019 championships on 23 April at its meeting in Amsterdam after presentations by the bidders that meet the requirements of the evaluation process.

The Evaluation Commission consists of Karel Pilný (Evaluation Chair); Célia Mendes, Marcel Wakim and Bernadette Brun.

“In recent years Glasgow has established itself as one of the world’s top sporting cities thanks to our investment in new facilities and our international sporting events programme,” said Depute Leader of Glasgow City Council and Chair of Glasgow Life, Councillor Archie Graham OBE.

“Athletics has been at the very heart of our rise as a world-leading sporting city. This weekend’s Glasgow Indoor Grand Prix will take the sport to a new level and we hope to build on that success with the 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships, which would see Europe’s top athletes return to the Emirates Arena. Our aim is to deliver a world-class event with athletes and spectators at its very heart.”

As well as meeting with bid partners, including the Scottish Government, EventScotland, Glasgow City Council, Scottish Athletics and British Athletics, the group toured the Emirates Arena.

The itinerary also includes a visit to proposed training venue Scotstoun Sports Campus, and an assessment of Glasgow’s ability to accommodate hundreds of athletes and, potentially, thousands of tourists.

“This weekend’s 2016 Glasgow Indoor Grand Prix has sold out months in advance, demonstrating the huge support for elite athletics there is within the Scottish public,” said Niels de Vos, Chief Executive of British Athletics.

“I’m delighted that Glasgow City and EventScotland decided to build on the success of the 2014 Commonwealth Games and previous British Athletics events held in the city by bidding to host European Athletics’ flagship indoor event at the Emirates Arena in 2019.”

The hosts and rights holders of the innovative event taking place in Glasgow and Berlin in 2018 have unveiled a new, unifying brand identity under the name “European Championships” – shortened from the previous title of “European Sports Championships”.

The multi-sport event in August 2018 brings together the existing European Championships of athletics, aquatics, cycling, gymnastics, rowing and triathlon, and also introduces a new golf team championship onto the European stage.

The brand is represented by a new logo, the star-like “Mark of a Champion” said to represent the vision at the heart of the new multi-sport championships, the aim of which is said to “create a must-attend, must-watch experience that elevates the status of European Champions”.

The logo was created in partnership by the sports federations, Host Cities Glasgow and Berlin and broadcast partner the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

 “The launch of this impressive brand is the starting gun for a European Championships concept that will help elevate the Berlin 2018 European Athletics Championships to a scale we have never seen before,” said European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen, co-chair of the 2018 European Championships Board.

“In Berlin we have a fantastic host city for our Championships, and in the German athletics federation, we have a committed partner who have produced a great generation of athletes. We are all committed to delivering the best-ever European Athletics Championships.”

The organising partners said the event will take place every four years, anticipating a television audience of around 1 billion, plus multiple digital and radio platforms in 2018. 

Around 1500 athletes are expected to compete in Berlin from 7-12 August as part of the European Athletics Championships, while approximately 3025 athletes are set to visit Scotland for the other six events between 1 and 12 August.

“I am delighted that Glasgow’s vibrant personality shines through this new brand,” said Councillor Frank McAveety, Leader of Glasgow City Council. 

“We have worked together with these amazing sports to create something that reflects all of our values by embracing our ambition, our strength in unity and our ongoing journey to provide opportunities for all of our citizens through the power of sport and culture.”

Senator Frank Henkel, City of Berlin, said: “We are really pleased to see the unveiling of the umbrella brand for the European Championships of which we are part. Our city is well underway in its preparations for the European Athletics Championships, and our own Berlin 2018 mark will be unveiled soon.”

Each of the participating sports are due to unveil their own event logos in the coming months.

HOST CITY: Does the location of an event have a big impact on infrastructure requirements?

Martin Kallen: We would like it to be similar all the time – that would be easier for us, but wherever you go it’s different. 

Of course we have our criteria and documents we provide to stadiums and organisers to ensure that they meet certain standards. The standards are getting more even. 

However they are still different in terms of the size and quality of infrastructure. Some have better broadcasting facilities, better hospitality facilities or better technical facilities. 

HOST CITY: How does France compare with Poland and Ukraine in terms of event infrastructure?

Martin Kallen: We have 10 stadiums in France, four of which are brand new, 1 existing Stade de France and five refurbished stadiums. If you go to Parc de Princes, they have rebuilt all the hospitality zones, business seats, kiosks, technical area and refreshed the sanitary areas. The remaining seats will be soon replaced.

Lyon is a completely new stadium. Lens is in principle a rebuild, with the construction of a new roof, hospitality and technical area, replacement of seats, etc. Saint-Etienne is a rebuild as well – it’s almost a new stadium on the old foundations.

Bordeaux is a new stadium and Toulouse made an upgrade of the existing facilities as seating area, kiosks and access control system.

If you compare this to Poland and Ukraine, most of the stadiums there were new buildings, with one or two exceptions. 

In Poland, Poznan was a rebuild, but almost the whole stadium was rebuilt. All the other stadiums - Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw - were new. 

In Ukraine you had three new stadiums: Donetsk was finished two years earlier for the club FC Shakhtar Donetsk. Kharkiv was similar to Saint-Etienne, where they rebuilt the stadium on old foundations. 

France is further ahead at this stage in terms of finishing – the infrastructure of most of the stadiums is now delivered. The last one Lyon, will be finished by the end of this year, whereas in Ukraine and Poland a lot of the stadiums were delivered in the last year and two close to the start of the tournament.

In terms of quality, a brand new stadium is much more modern than the one already existing. New stadiums in Ukraine and Poland are similar to the new stadiums in France. 

It is difficult to compare a rebuilding with a new stadium. You always have some challenges because there is a link to the foundations of the stadium, access and so on. If they were built in the seventies, eighties, it’s not the same as today.

HOST CITY: What opportunities are there for event infrastructure suppliers in France?

Martin Kallen: On the overlay side, we are now doing the last tenders. All the suppliers have put their tenders in. It’s now coming almost to an end, because the work will start next year but the tendering process is taking place now.

On the stadium side, all the suppliers were chosen by the stadiums because, except Lyon, the last ones will be delivered by this summer.

HOST CITY: What are the main criteria in choosing a supplier for a UEFA event?

Martin Kallen: One is of course their knowledge – they need to have experience. Secondly, they need to have state of the art, products and services. 

They also need to be sustainable. This means that what they are putting in also needs to be taken away and recycled, or ideally reused in a different form; and when it comes to waste management, that it’s not all going in the garbage – it needs to be sorted or treated. The more it can be reused, the better is the sustainability of the product. 

What is also important is the price. It doesn’t always need to be the cheapest price, but it needs to be a good balance between quality and cost.

Taxes in different countries are always a challenge for suppliers, because they have to establish daughter companies, to recover VAT etc.

For us, the suppliers are very important for the events, as they are in principle specialists in many areas. 

Through the Association of Global Event Suppliers (AGES), they can exchange their knowledge, information, issues, problems, challenges and best practice – this is a very good initiative.

HOST CITY: How will EURO 2020 differ in terms of event infrastructure?

Martin Kallen: The first big difference is that infrastructure in most of the countries is already ready. 

We have only two locations where a new stadium will be built; one in Budapest and one in Brussels.

The other stadiums are already state of the art. We have to put on the EURO overlay; we will start working heavily with the stadium from approximatively 2018.

The overlay required for a big event is mainly for broadcasting and media facilities; then it’s hospitality, commercial facilities and all areas which will be either inside existing stadium premises or temporary facilities built outside. But it’s too early to give further information on that, because we have started the project not long time ago.

HOST CITY: What’s the biggest challenge for EURO 2020?

Martin Kallen: We have different challenges. The biggest one is surely to have a good EURO atmosphere in all the 13 countries as each one has 4 matches in only one host city of the country.

The other challenge is to ensure easy transport access. Or to have back to back matches in a host city, so fans can remain in the city until the next match – these are all important points to look at. 

Of course you have 13 different countries with 13 different legislations, so you have to analyse how you can build a unified ticketing concept which is the same for a supporter in London, Munich and Baku. 

HOST CITY: Will ticket prices be different in different countries?

Martin Kallen: That is a good question. That will be decided at a later stage, whether you can have a set price or a different price category that depends on the purchasing power of the people in the country to buy tickets. 

The European Sports Championships, which will bring together triathlon, swimming, rowing and cycling for the first time in Glasgow in 2018, is set to be a major boost to the profile of the sport due to the broadcast reach of the new multi-sports event, the leaders of the International and European Triathlon Unions told HOST CITY.

Expectations are also high of the host city of Glasgow.

“The reason we the ETU are so excited about Triathlon being part of the ESC in Glasgow 2018 is the opportunity it gives our sport to reach a much wider audience than we can possibly achieve on our own,”Renato Bertrandi, president of the European Triathlon Federation told HOST CITY.

“Joining up with other major sports like swimming, rowing and athletics means that we can benefit from the power of aggregation. Collectively we become attractive to the EBU and their support means that we will be able to reach the living rooms of television viewers in all European countries. 

“At a stroke this event will dramatically increase the profile of triathlon. In particular the screening of our innovative mixed team relay event will serve to enhance its credibility and help to cement its place in future Olympic Games programmes."

Hosting triathlon events will be one of many hot topics at HOST CITY 2015, with Antonio Fernandez Arimany, director general of the International Triathlon Union (ITU) to speak there again after the great success of HOST CITY Bid to Win in 2014.

“ITU, together with our European Continental Confederation, are supporting this 2018 EU Championships because triathlon is a growing sport and our strategy is to be present in all important multisport competitions,” Arimany told HOST CITY.

“Also the 2018 EU Championships will provide the sport of triathlon an important promotional platform of the sport, since TV broadcasting will be done around all the EU.”

The European Sports Championships also features athletics, which will take place in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium at the same time as the multi-sports events in Glasgow. The opening ceremony will also take place in Glasgow.

Arimany said he expects the event to be organised very well by its Glasgow hosts. 

“Regarding our expectations with Glasgow, we are very confident that the organisation will be on a very high level, because of the experience of Glasgow with the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and also because the British Triathlon Federation is involved in the delivery of the event in Glasgow.”

Another mega event emerged on the European sports calendar today with the announcement that Glasgow and Berlin will be hosting a new multi-sports championship in the summer of 2018. 

The European federations of athletics, swimming, cycling, rowing and triathlon have decided to coordinate their European Championships into a quadrennial 10-12 day event to maximise exposure. 

The 2018 European Athletics Championship will take place in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium as already planned, but it will now coincide with swimming, cycling, rowing and triathlon events in Glasgow. 

 “We are excited to be organising our European Championships in 2018 in Berlin in a coordinated way together with other leading sports in Glasgow,” said Hansjörg Wirz, president of European Athletics.

“Our aim is to build further on the heritage, profile and awareness of our existing prestigious European Athletic Championships.”

Glasgow will host all other sports and the Opening Ceremony, and there are plans to include golf in the event following the success of last year’s Ryder Cup at Gleneagles.

“Major events have become part of the bread and butter of our city’s economy and we can now look forward with tremendous excitement and focus to the next big thing on the Glasgow calendar,” said councillor Gordon Matheson, leader of Glasgow City Council.

The new mega event will be seen as a competitor to the European Olympic Committees’ European Games, which takes place for the first time this year in Baku.

The combined championships are expected to generate more than 2,700 hours of programming and reach a live television audience of more than 850 million television viewers.

“We are delighted to be associated with this ground-breaking project that will encompass the rich diversity of European sports in a competitive event of the highest quality, which we will bring to the largest audience possible in all of Europe on a free-to air basis,” said Jean-Paul Philippot, president of the European Broadcast Union.

Paolo Barelli, president of the Ligue Européenne de Natation (swimming) said: “With the support and commitment of the major free-to-air broadcasters around the continent, the European Sports Championships will further build the prestige of becoming a champion of Europe and act as a powerful inspiration for youngsters to participate in our sports.”

The event will receive funding from the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council as it is seen as a major opportunity to boost culture, tourism and business as well as sports in the host city. 

Jamie Hepburn, Minister for Sport, Health Improvement and Mental Health, said: “Last summer Scotland showed the world what a tremendous job it can do when it comes to staging major sporting events, with the Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup both hugely successful. 

“As part of the legacy of those events, we want to attract even more top class sport to Scotland, and the European Sports Championships is certainly in that category.

“The European Sports Championships will be another chance for Scotland to prove it’s the perfect stage for top class events. Not only will this be a fantastic opportunity for Scottish sports fans to see some of Europe’s top athletes competing in our world-class venues, it will also be attract visitors from around the continent, providing a great boost to the economy.”

Around 2900 athletes are expected to come to Scotland as part of a total delegation of around 8200 people involved in the event. A further 1500 athletes will compete in Berlin. 

Swimming, involving nearly 900 athletes, will be staged at three venues with the main swimming event at Tollcross International Swimming Centre in Glasgow and the diving and synchronised swimming at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh. The open water swimming competition is to be staged at Loch Lomond.

The new event marks the first time four cycling championships – track, road race, mountain-biking and BMX – have been staged together. 650 cyclists will compete in the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, the Cathkin Braes Mountain Bike Trails, the streets of Glasgow and a new BMX track.

The world-class Strathclyde Country Park in North Lanarkshire will see 760 athletes compete in rowing and triathlon.

Hosting triathlon events will be one of the hot topics at HOST CITY 2015, with Antonio Fernandez Arimany, director general of the International Triathlon Union (ITU) to speak there again after the great success of HOST CITY Bid to Win in 2014.

European Athletics, the rights holder for events including the biennial European Athletics Championship, has created a new company to market its activities, through a joint venture with Tridem Sports.

European Athletics Marketing, based in Switzerland, will act as a service company for commercial strategies and sales activities, including sponsor account management and rights delivery.

Its first priority will be to develop the sponsorship programmes of European Athletics’ major events and work with local organising committees to optimise event revenues.

The company will also actively look for partnerships for European Athletics’ other activities and programmes, including the European Athletics Convention, Young Leaders programme and a new “Running for All” initiative to position European Athletics as the natural authority for running on the continent.

The new company is a joint venture with Swiss-based sports marketing agency Tridem Sports. European Athletics is the main shareholder of the new company and will maintain ownership and control of its commercial properties.

“We are confident that this new company will help us create additional values and revenues from our events and activities,” said European Athletics president Svein Arne Hansen.

“Tridem brings to the table expertise and know-how in sales, marketing and event implementation, and has the experience in networking and developing relationships with business companies.”

Tridem founder and CEO Christian Pirzer said, “We are pleased about this new joint venture with European Athletics, our first big project outside of winter sports. It will help to develop the commercial programme of athletics in Europe. It is our second joint-venture company with a major Olympic sport after the successful implementation six years ago of FIS Marketing AG with the International Ski Federation.”

The 2016 European Athletics Championships takes place in Amsterdam from 6 to 10 July and tickets are now on sale. 

The 2018 European Athletics Championships will take place in Berlin to coincide with swimming, cycling, rowing and triathlon events in Glasgow as part of the 2018 European Sports Championships.

[Source: European Championships Management] The EC2022 Board is pleased to announce that Munich will host the 2022 European Championships following unanimous approval of their bid by the participating European Federations.

Munich 2022 will also mark the 50th anniversary of the Olympic Games held in the German city, with the iconic Munich Olympic Park set to be the heart of the second edition of the multi-sport championships. 

Six sports that were part of the 2018 edition have already confirmed their participation and the staging of their respective continental championships in the event that will take place Thursday 11 to Sunday 21 August 2022: Athletics, Cycling, Golf, Gymnastics, Rowing and Triathlon.  

Eurovision Sport, a division of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), will again be the media rights partner for the Championships, ensuring extensive free-to-air coverage through EBU Member broadcasters and partners.  

The majority of events and activities will take place in and around the Munich Olympic Park in order to create an extraordinary festival atmosphere that allows athletes from different sports to experience the event together and visitors to embrace multiple events.   

The EC2022 Board is also pleased to confirm the dates of the 2026 edition of the European Championships. Following consultation involving the participating European Federations (European Athletics, UEC, FISA, UEG, ETU, ET-LET), the dates are: Thursday 30 July to Sunday 9 August 2026. 

European Championships 2022 Board Chair and European Athletics President Svein Arne Hanfsen said: "I speak for all the participating sports in saying how delighted we are to be going to the wonderful city of Munich in 2022, and for athletics we are especially happy to be heading back to Germany, after the success of Berlin 2018, where we know there are so many passionate sports fans. It is testament to the fantastic legacy of the Munich Olympic Park that we will bring our individual European Championships together again there, on the 50th anniversary of the Olympic Games, and use many of its iconic venues. 

"We are very pleased to partner again with Eurovision Sport, meaning that millions of sports fans will be able to experience the unique excitement of the European Championships 2022, via free-to-air broadcasters."  

The inaugural European Championships in 2018 took place through 2-12 August, with Glasgow and Berlin successfully staging seven European Championships with 13 disciplines.  

A television audience of more than 1.4 billion watched this memorable first edition on free-to-air channels via EBU Member broadcasters and partners in 44 territories across Europe and worldwide. There were 1.9 billion visits on websites registered and the reach on social media was 745 million. 

Across the two host cities, a total of one million people attended a sports session at the likes of Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, watched a road race on the cities’ streets, or experienced the festival-like atmospheres in George Square in Glasgow and the Breitscheidplatz in Berlin.   

Hear Stefan Kuerten, Executive Director of Eurovision Sport, discuss the challenges and achievements of developing the European Championships at Host City 2019 in Glasgow on 26-27 November

[Source: Glasgow City Council] Stunning images of Glasgow and Scotland were promoted to a TV audience of more than 1.4 billion during the staging of the hugely successful inaugural European Championships last summer.

The official evaluation of the Glasgow 2018 European Championships revealed the substantial national and international exposure enjoyed as the multi-sport mega event was broadcast on free-to-air channels across 43 European countries.

And with online and social media coverage included, the audience for the 12 sports across Glasgow and co-host Berlin, who staged the Athletics, reached a massive 2.9 billion in the key tourism and business market of Europe.

In total the media exposure for Glasgow and Scotland was worth more than £250 million in PR value as millions of sports fans enjoyed the 11 days of Aquatics, Cycling, Golf, Gymnastics, Rowing and Triathlon.

Highlights included a massive 1.4 million viewers tuning in to watch British swimming hero Adam Peaty break his own world record in the 100m Breaststroke at the Tollcross International Swimming Centre. At the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome Scottish cyclist Katie Archibald’s silver medal win in the Individual Pursuit was watched by a staggering 2 million viewers.

Across the UK the BBC reported an average audience of more than 1 million with a total reach of 20 million, in excess of established events such as the Rugby Six Nations, and just below the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.

The BBC also reported that the event attracted a higher female and younger audience than many other sporting events.

Across Glasgow and Scotland more than 560,000 people, more than double the projected number, attended a sport session, a Festival 2018 offering or visited the hugely popular George Square and ‘GO LIVE! at The Green’ live sites. 

Final attendance figures show 137,000 tickets for sport were issued, packing each of the 12 venues with roaring crowds to support the new champions of Europe. More than 54,000 attended free sporting events such as the Cycling Road Race on the streets of the city, and the Open Water Swimming at the stunning Loch Lomond.

In total 97 per cent of spectators from Glasgow were proud that their city, renowned for the warm welcome of its residents, was hosting the mega event.

3,103 athletes representing 48 countries competed during Glasgow 2018. Russia topped the medal table, followed closely by Great Britain. The event included numerous memorable experiences with new European champions crowned in 187 medal events and two world records were broken in the Swimming.

The athletes were accompanied by 3,760 accredited officials and delegates. In addition to the value of the worldwide PR exposure for Glasgow and Scotland, an independent economic assessment showed significant amounts of expenditure from these visitors and participants in the event, as well as millions of pounds of contracts won for Scottish companies.

As a result of hosting the European Championships there was just over £34 million of additional spend in Glasgow and Scotland, and an estimated £24 million of contracts awarded to Scottish companies, with £8.5 million of those going to companies based in the Glasgow City Region.

Significant effort was made to create social and community benefits by the organisers. Team 2018, the 3,600 invaluable volunteers who were key to making the event such a success according to those surveyed, were a diverse workforce, exceeding targets for the number of Scottish and Glasgow residents (representing every local authority areas in the country), new volunteers, including significant numbers of people aged under 26.

Around 50 per cent of the volunteers said they we would do more volunteering as a result of taking part in Glasgow 2018. Another 17 countries were represented across Team 2018.

Continuing the delivery of sporting and cultural legacy created by the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, was also a key objective of the event. More than 20,000 people took the opportunity to try one of the sports across all Glasgow 2018 venues and approximately 30,000 people said they learned more about healthy lifestyles as a result of visiting ‘GO LIVE! at the Green.’

Alongside the sport, Festival 2018 was a world class cultural festival which created a vibrant live city experience, with 2,400 artists and performers contributing, alongside more than 5,600 voluntary and non-professional performers. In total more than 370,000 people visited a Festival or Live Site.

Minister for Sport, Joe FitzPatrick MSP, said: “The incredible broadcast numbers achieved by the Glasgow 2018 European Championships are great news, and mean people around the world had the chance to see Scotland demonstrating the nation’s ability to stage top-class sporting events.

“The competition will have far-reaching effects – not just in terms of showcasing our country and culture around the globe, but also in inspiring a whole new generation of athletes.

“The success exceeded our expectations and I congratulate all involved in this event.”

Councillor David MacDonald, depute leader of Glasgow City Council, said: “Yet again I want to say thank you to the athletes, volunteers, spectators, media, officials and amazing home crowds.

“These final broadcast numbers illustrate only too clearly the massive benefit the staging of events bring to our city as we showcase what we have to offer to visitors and investors across Europe and beyond.”

The European Athletics Executive Board has invited Göteborg in Sweden, the region of Silesia in Poland, and Minsk, the capital of Belarus, to proceed with bidding for the 2024 European Athletics Championships. 

The seven-man board made the decision based on their review of an Evaluation Panel’s report and discussions with the prospective bidders.

“An important topic of the individual discussions was the presentation by each bidder on the overall concept of their project for the event focusing on the key aspects of event organisation,” European Athletics said in a statement.

The next stage in this revised bidding process is for the Member Federations and bidding destinations to sign a bid undertaking by March 2019. The submission deadline for the full bidding application is in June 2019.

The pool is set to be reduced further still at that stage. “The goal is to select the two strongest bids, based on the strategic, financial and operational evaluation criteria,” said European Athletics.

The bids will then be presented to the European Athletics Council in April 2020 to decide on where to allocate the hosting rights.

This Council comprises European Athletics President and three Vice Presidents and 13 other elected members, plus the CEO of European Athletics and IAAF President.

All future European Athletics Championships that take place in Summer Olympic years will follow this new process. “This new strategy focuses on individual discussions and a continuous interactive evaluation from the first step of a bidding process between the bidders and European Athletics in order to achieve a common goal of delivering a successful event,” said European Athletics.

The next European Athletics Championships will take place in Paris on 26-30 August 2020, after the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Bids for the following European Athletics Championships will take a different route, as it falls outside of a Summer Olympic Year and forms part of the multi-sport European Championships.

The second European Championships takes place in the summer of 2022. For information about bidding, visit https://www.europeanchampionships.com/become-host-city