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.

2014 was a momentous year for Scotland and major events were at the heart of the excitement. The great success of the “best ever” Commonwealth Games in 2014 was followed by an acclaimed Ryder Cup.

“We’ve been putting Scotland forward as the perfect stage for events for a number of years,” Paul Bush OBE, chief operating officer of EventScotland told HOST CITY magazine. “What came out of last year is that it was a step change for us.”

The successes of 2014 have provided a platform for future hosting successes, building on proven strengths that EventScotland refers to as the “four Cs”: capacity, capability, credibility and confidence.

“Our capacity, in terms of number of volunteers, transport, infrastructure and accommodation, is now recognised around the world,” says Bush. “As for capability, all the events were delivered as the best ever or recognised some of the best.

“Credibility is about reputation; the experience of people coming to our events was high. And the feedback we had from the local population was extremely positive – they didn’t see the events as an impediment; they saw them as something to be proud of. 

“And that’s given us the confidence to look bigger and better in the future. The international federations now have great confidence in bringing their events back to Scotland this year.”

Glasgow is hosting the IPC Swimming World Championships and the World Gymnastics Championships in 2015. 

Outside the cities, Scotland is hosting seven golf tournaments back to back this year. The Open Championships takes place in St. Andrews this year while the Women’s British Open takes place in Turnberry in Ayrshire.

The World Orienteering Championships, which has record number of entries already this year, takes place in Speyside, the countryside around Aberdeenshire.

And the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup is taking place in Fort William again in what has become an annual Scottish fixture. 

“We’re really cognisant of the fact that we’ve got to spread the benefit as much as we can across the country,” says Bush.

“That’s not always possible because the facilities and the infrastructure are often the driver, but using our natural landscape is really important to us. 

The European Eventing Championships, the final qualifying event for Rio 2016, is in the tiny village of Blair Atholl in Perthshire. “The infrastructure that will be needed to put up around that will be huge, and that will really showcase the landscape of that area.”

The 2014 Ryder Cup was hosted on a greenfield site at Gleneagles. Despite the influx of 50,000 people a day, there were no problems in getting people to and from the event – thanks to a transport infrastructure group set up by the Scottish government to look after major events. Initially set up for the Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup, this group has since maintained its position within Transport Scotland to ensure the smooth operation of all major events. 

Beyond sport

Major cultural events are also an invaluable part of Scotland’s hosting portfolio. Glasgow was the European City of Culture in 1990, hosted the MOBOs in 2009, 2011 and 2013, the MTV Awards in 2014 and is hosting the Turner Prize in 2015. 

“Glasgow is recognised as one of the cultural gems of Europe; it has a huge history and heritage within contemporary arts,” says Bush, pointing out that three of the last five Turner Prize winners were educated at the Glasgow School of Art. 

“The MTV Awards got to a totally different demographic in terms of young people. MTV communicates through social media –their ticket sales for Glasgow were activated through Facebook, they don’t rely on traditional routes at all.”

Scotland nurtures its own cultural events that are incredibly valuable to the economy. The Edinburgh Festivals bring in around £262m each year, while Hogmanay alone brings in over £30m each year. 

“We’ve got some great gems in the cultural portfolio that we want to sustain and grow,” says Bush.

Business events are also an increasingly important feature of Scotland’s event strategy. “Meetings, corporate events, incentives, associations – these have now become part of our portfolio and we are looking to see how the synergies work between these different types of events,” says Bush.

Mass participation is another area where Scotland is keen to grow and diversify. Bush cites the London Prudential Ride and Melbourne’s Ride the Night, which attracted a quarter of a million people into the city centre between dusk and dawn, as examples. 

“We are looking at pressing different buttons, accepting the fact that we are not going to get the Ryder Cup or the Commonwealth Games every year, or even every lifetime. “The big thing for us is to ensure that people who come to events become repeat visitors in the future. 

“Last year, most people’s perceptions of Glasgow were changed and they realised what a great city it was to come to. A lot of cities have stigmas attached to them. But people thought this is a great city, it’s a really fun place to come to and the people are really welcoming.”

How to become a world class host

So, how can other cities and countries around the world follow this example build themselves into world-leading event destinations?

“The most important thing is you’ve got to have a very clear strategy and you’ve got to stick to that. It’s quite easy to buy events, as certain places in the world have successfully achieved. But you’ve got to work out your USPs, your strategy and your vision.

“You’ve got to invest in good people and you’ve got to give those people the time, the ability and the confidence. In Scotland we started this in 2001 – that’s 14 years ago. “But probably the most important thing in terms of long term success is your ability to deliver and the reputation that comes from that.” 

International conventions for the event hosting industry are precious few, but make the most of these, says Bush. “They are really important because they provide that ideal opportunity to get everybody in one place in the world to rekindle those relationships.”

This interview was first published in the Winter 2014/15 Issue of HOST CITY magazine. Since then, Glasgow has been awarded the hosting rights to the new 2018 European Sports Championship.

Contracts totalling more than US$1bn (£669m) were awarded in relation to hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Glasgow City Council announced on Friday.

The majority of these “Tier One” contracts were awarded to companies and organisations from Glasgow, which won over US$636 (£423m) of business. 

More than three quarters (US$766m, or 510m) of the total value of contracts was awarded to Scottish firms. 

As part of regeneration initiatives in Glasgow, Games-related contracts included community benefit clauses that created employment and business opportunities for local people and companies and led to the long-term unemployed and school leavers winning places on high-profile construction projects across the city, the Council said.

"It's enormously heartening to read these hugely impressive figures about the jobs, apprenticeships and contracts gained by Glasgow people and businesses as a result of our Games,” said councillor Gordon Matheson, Leader of Glasgow City Council.

“We also retain the skills, facilities and enhanced international reputation that ensures we will continue to attract world-class events in the future.

"The world knows that Glasgow delivered the best Commonwealth Games there have ever been. But the Games were always about much more than 11 spectacular days of sport and cultural festival, however wonderful and memorable. What matters most are the lasting benefits for the people of Glasgow.”

In the run-up to the Games, the council and its partners engaged with the city’s communities and businesses through the Get Ready Glasgow programme, advising on Games-time operations and how local firms would maximise the opportunities available.

Glasgow City Council also provided supported for a huge range of organisations working on the Games through one-to-one sessions, specialist seminars and mass ‘Meet the Buyer’ events.

To bid for a Games-related contract, firms and organisations had to register on the Glasgow Business Portal. Over 22,500 registrations were made on Portal, with over 4,400 from Glasgow. 

To ensure the long term sustainable legacy of these outcomes, the Glasgow Business Portal merged with the Scottish Government’s Public Contract Scotland (PCS) during November 2014, with the merger providing more efficient service for suppliers by ensuring all opportunities and sub-contracts for public bodies are advertised on one dedicated site. 

The city council says it is now seen as a model in awarding public sector contracts.  The £1.13bn Glasgow City Region City Deal, signed in August 2014, is viewed as another chance to deliver significant community benefit for Glasgow and the surrounding areas. 

The council says its ambitious Commonwealth Apprenticeship Initiative has found Modern Apprenticeship places for almost 3,600 Glasgow school leavers over the past five years.

784 graduates have gained employment through the council’s Commonwealth Graduate Fund, 917 previously unemployed people living in the city have secured jobs through the Commonwealth Jobs Fund, and 321 people found jobs through the Commonwealth Youth Fund.

The 2014 Commonwealth Games were predicted to cost £472m to host, but the organising committee has announced that around £25m of previously committed public funds have not been required.

While the final budget will not be confirmed until the organising committee’s closing accounts are completed early in 2015, its chairman Lord Smith of Kelvin said that Glasgow 2014 was set to conclude its operations significantly within budget.

“It gives me considerable pride to now be able to say that Glasgow and Scotland have made Games history…. and have done so well within budget,” he said. 

The surplus will be invested into physical, economic and social regeneration, said Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond. “We have already announced that £6 million will go into Scotland’s first ever para-sports centre and £2 million will support our successful Legacy programme. 

“The remaining funds will be invested back into Scotland’s health service. It is clear that the benefit of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games will be felt in Scotland for generations to come.” 

1.3 million tickets were sold for Glasgow 2014, with an attendance record of 171,000 reached for Rugby Sevens. 

Around £400m of Games contracts were awarded during the delivery of the Games, with more than two thirds of these contracts going to Scottish companies. More than £1 million of contracts were awarded to social businesses. 

“Glasgow 2014 and Games Partners are to be warmly congratulated on their prudent and responsible approach to the delivery of what was an outstanding and joyful Commonwealth Games,” said HRH Prince Imran, President of the Commonwealth Games Federation.

“Glasgow and Scotland’s Games has set bold new benchmarks, energised and inspired the Commonwealth sports movement and invested in developing a long-term legacy which will benefit a wide range of people and communities for many years to come.”

The event set new standards in sustainability management, being the first Scottish event or Commonwealth Games to be awarded the ISO 20121 – the gold international standard in sustainable event management.

“The Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games raised the bar in so many ways, from preparing the venues, hosting the competitions, ceremonies and cultural programme and on to the legacy that we are currently enjoying,” said Councillor Gordon Matheson, Leader, Glasgow City Council.

“So it’s no surprise to find that all the previously-committed public funds were not required. Once again we have been shown to be a world-class city capable of organising events in the best possible fashion.”

Glasgow was awarded the hosting rights to the 2017 Badminton World Championships at a Badminton World Federation (BWF) meeting in Lima on Friday.

The BWF took the decision to take its most prestigious event to Glasgow after seeing the city’s bid for the 2017 Sudirman Cup. The BWF awarded the Sudirman Cup to the Gold Coast, but was so impressed with Glasgow’s bid that it took the opportunity to present the Scottish city with the hosting rights to the World Championships.

“It was obvious how much work and thought was invested in the bid which Badminton Scotland and Glasgow submitted,” said Poul-Erik Høyer, president of the Badminton World Federation (BWF). 

“We were stunned at some of their innovative thinking and the Council felt that, as we still had an option to award the World Championships, we would approach them and determine if they would be interested in hosting the World Championships in 2017.

“I am pleased to say they were extremely enthusiastic about this prospect and therefore we are able to leave Lima happy to have secured two excellent hosts for top BWF tournaments. It’s truly a win-win situation for everyone and most importantly, for badminton.”

Glasgow’s bid was a partnership between BADMINTONscotland, Glasgow Life and EventScotland.

Anne Smillie, Chief Executive of BADMINTONscotland, said "The return of the World Championships to Scotland is a major coup for BADMINTONscotland and our partners, Glasgow City Council and EventScotland.

“We had put together a superb bid for the Sudirman Cup and our presentation was extremely well received, even though we narrowly lost out to Australia. There is little doubt that the quality of our bid played a significant part in the decision to award these Championships to us.

“Securing this event will also provide a huge incentive for our fantastic volunteer team, many of whom were involved in this summer's Commonwealth Games and will be on duty again next week at the Emirates Arena for the Scottish Open Grand Prix."

The most prestigious tournament in badminton, the World Championships is the latest major event to be secured for Scotland as a legacy of the 2014 Commonwealth Games and will provide a major platform for the ongoing development of the sport in the coming years.

Councillor Gordon Matheson, Leader of Glasgow City Council, said: “This is fantastic news for Glasgow. Hosting the World Individual Badminton Championships is a brilliant opportunity to reaffirm our position as one of the top sporting cities in the world. It also provides the perfect platform to build on the success of what has been an outstanding summer of sport for Glasgow following the best ever Commonwealth Games.

“Alongside its ever growing portfolio of major events and its world-class sporting facilities, such as the Emirates Arena, Glasgow also offers a wide range of fantastic hotels and restaurants to suit the needs of the visiting players and the many fans who will inevitably follow. We can’t wait to welcome them to our friendly city during the summer of 2017.”

The 2017 Badminton World Championships will take place in the Emirate’s Arena, which is hosting the Scottish Open Grand Prix this week. 

Glasgow will host the World Gymnastics Championships and the International Paralympic Committee Swimming World Championships in 2015 and the European Swimming Championships in 2018. 

The 2014 Badminton World Championships were staged in Copenhagen. The 2015 event will be held in Jakarta.

The MTV Europe Music Awards (EMA) is to return to Milan next year, to coincide with the Expo 2015. 

The news was announced by event host and rap sensation Nicki Minaj at the 2014 EMA at SSE Hydro in Glasgow on 9th November. 

The 2015 edition of MTV's star-studded awards show will be held at the Mediolanum Forum in Milan on October 25. 

Sunday night’s extravaganza was the first time Glasgow had hosted the event, culminating an extraordinary year of events in Glasgow and Scotland that included the Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup.

This will be the second time that the major international music awards event will be held in Milan, which played host in 1998, and the third time Italy has hosted the show.

“The 2004 show in Rome was a huge success. Now, we’re looking forward to delivering an even bigger and better experience with the 2015 MTV EMA in partnership with EXPO, bringing thousands of people from around the world to Milan.” said Raffaele Annecchino, Executive Vice President and Managing Director VIMN South Europe, Middle East & Africa.

“We’re thrilled to bring the 2015 MTV EMA to Milan – an iconic city where art, fashion and music collide, and home to the World Expo,” said Bruce Gillmer, Executive Producer of the MTV EMA and Executive Vice President of Music / Talent Programming and Events for event owner Viacom International Media Networks.

“One of the world’s biggest cultural capitals, Milan will undoubtedly set the stage one of the biggest global music events of the year," he added.

The World Expo is the world’s largest city-based event, after the Olympic Games. The theme of the Milan 2015 Expo is “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”. 

According to Bob Bakish, president and chief executive of Viacom International Media Networks, the EMAs bring "a noticeable economic boost for the host city every year".

It has been estimated that Glasgow will have benefited by as much as £10m from hosting the MTV EMA. 

This year’s Glasgow Commonwealth Games was on the receiving end of widespread praise from athletes, the media and sports administrators alike, with Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive Mike Hooper even hailing it as “the standout Games in the history of the movement.”

71 teams and nearly 5,000 athletes took part in the Games, which was held across 13 venues. The Games went off smoothly and was heralded as a success with large attendances at every event and 1.2 million tickets sold.

Vice Chair of the Glasgow 2014 Organising Committee, Louise Martin, has been a part of Glasgow 2014 from the very beginning. She was the first woman to be Chair of Commonwealth Games Scotland (CGS) and was awarded the CBE in 2003 for services to the Games.

“It feels absolutely fantastic and to see the fruition from the idea, to the bid, to winning the bid, to where we are now, it’s the journey that we planned meticulously and it’s worked,” she told HOST CITY in Glasgow.

“From the bid phase, which we launched in 2004, to actual delivery, in that time we managed to make sure that every single venue was finished two years prior to today. So in 2012 all our venues were finished, operational and had been used by the general public. So that in itself, to me, is worth its weight in gold.”

The Commonwealth Games has been struggling to attract potential host cities in recent years, with the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) calling an emergency meeting in Kuala Lumpur in January as no member country had entered a bid for the 2022 Games just two months prior to the deadline. The extensive list of controversies surrounding the 2010 Delhi Games and the huge cost involved with hosting a Games have been some of the reasons cited for the lack of interest, especially considering the Commonwealth includes some of world’s least economically developed nations.

However, Martin is overwhelmingly positive about the event and believes the way in which Glasgow has been successfully delivered can provide a lesson for future Games and may encourage more nations to become involved with hosting. “One of the reasons we bid for this is that we’re a small country, five million people and we wanted to demonstrate that small countries can host these things and stay in budget,” she says.

“We delivered a phenomenal opening ceremony and we were on budget, really on the target, and it wasn’t over the top. We didn’t have all the stuff flying around the sky; we kept it culturally towards what we are, this fun-loving, cheeky nation. The athletes enjoyed the ceremony, they were central to the whole thing and this is what we wanted to do the whole way through.”

This year’s Games has been almost universally praised and Martin believes this have been down to a mixture of Glasgow’s welcoming atmosphere and the work done by the organising committee to create a slickly run Games with the best facilities. She says: “I just think because it’s in Scotland, it’s the friendly Games and the family Games, we all speak the same language so therefore there are no hidden feelings, where we see people we see friends, we’re all one big happy family.

“The way these 15,000 Clyde-siders have been working and the way the Glasgow public and Scottish public have just taken this to heart as well. It’s a combination of facilities being ready, the people in Glasgow, the workforce: it’s one big jigsaw and its come together.”

The next Commonwealth Games will be held in Gold Coast City, Australia in 2018 whilst the 2022 edition of the Games will be hosted either by the South African city of Durban or the Canadian city of Edmonton. With the announcement of the winning bid less than a year away, both cities have been upping the ante in order to secure the Games.

“My advice would be, know what you want to do, know what you want to deliver, ensure that your plans are absolutely in place and your budget is set before you put your bid in – because once you’ve got your bidding document, it makes it easy in the transition from bidding to the organising committee and then you can start to move and do it very quickly,” says Martin.

Shortly before the start of the Glasgow Games, teams from Durban and Edmonton visited the city to present at the Commonwealth Games Federation General Assembly. Durban put on an in-depth presentation, utilising government ministers and videos referencing the late Nelson Mandela whilst Edmonton took the approach of a simple address by the bid chairman. Edmonton’s lack of presentation led some sections of the media pronouncing Durban as the more serious bid but Martin disagrees.

“Whether they are bullish or not you’ll have to wait and see, it’s what they actually put down on paper and what they actually can produce for the evaluation commission that counts. The city that will be chosen will be the one that can deliver a really, really good Games to the standard that we’re looking for and as far as I’m concerned the standard that’s here: it’s simple, it’s enjoyable, it’s affordable and it’s doable.”

Glasgow 2014 has also made a fine example of how to maximise the host nation’s sporting performance on home soil, an important factor for many host cities. Scotland achieved a record 19 gold medals in Glasgow, placing them fourth on the medals table.

“We’ve left nothing to chance,” says Martin. “We’ve been working with these athletes for the last five years, with all the coaches and all the scientists behind them and each individual athlete has had a special programme, nothing has been left to chance. So the delivery of Team Scotland at the moment has been planned and we have actually achieved what we’ve set out to achieve.”

The Organising Committee for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games announced the appointment of Mondo as the Official Provider of athletic track surface on Wednesday – after the company had already supplied the material for the athletics track surface. 

“Not only has Mondo provided the track surface but they are now part of the Glasgow 2014 sponsor family,” a spokesperson for Glasgow 2014 told HOST CITY.

Mondo is also providing specialist sports equipment for the field of play.  “As a sponsor, Mondo has been granted exclusive rights to market and associate itself as a sponsor of the Games in connection with athletics sports equipment and track surface manufacture,” the spokesperson said.

Glasgow 2014 declined to comment on the financial terms of the sponsorship or to what extent the value of the sponsorship will offset the cost of laying the track, saying “We cannot comment on the financial arrangements of any sponsorship contracts as this is commercially-sensitive information.” 

The running track is the top layer of the major transformation that Hampden Park, Scotland’s national football stadium has undergone to become Glasgow 2014’s athletics venue.

A revolutionary solution has raised the stadium surface by almost two metres, gaining the width and length required for the athletics track. The track has been laid in sections, laying 20 sq m rolls one at a time. Around 14,000 sq m of pre-fabricated and pre-tested Mondo material has been laid inside Hampden Park.

Maurizio Stroppiana, Sport&Flooring General Manager at Mondo said “Glasgow has created a venue that is not only an engineering feat but a world-class example of environmental and social responsibility. Mondo is proud to be part of this achievement.”

A further 6,000sqm has been installed at Lesser Hampden, which will be the main warm-up area for athletes prior to competition.

Mondo supplied athletics track surfaces for the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games, the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games and the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

David Grevemberg, Glasgow 2014 Chief Executive, said “The solution we’re implementing to transform Scotland’s National Stadium is a world-first on such a scale and it’s great to have the quality of track material supplied by Mondo providing a first-class platform for the best athletes of the Commonwealth to shine.”

Glasgow 2014 has taken the decision to exclude the demolition of Red Road flats from the opening ceremony, concerned that public opposition might spark security incidents.

Having announced less than two weeks ago that Red Road flats would be demolished as part of the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games, Glasgow 2014 has abandoned the plans in the face of widespread strong feelings of opposition.

Opposition to the proposal was led by former parliamentarian Carolyn Leckie, whose online petition gathered 17,240 signatures. On hearing the news, she tweeted “huge respect to decision makers prepared to change their mind. That’s the kind of democracy I want to live in.”

The organising committee was due to meet with Leckie early this week to discuss the proposals, with the intention of standing by its bold plan. On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Glasgow 2014 told Host City: “Glasgow 2014 and Games Partners remain committed to ensuring the important story of Red Road is part of the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games.  

“We want the story of Glasgow and Scotland to be real and authentic and reflecting the lives and history of communities such as Red Road, especially at such an important point in their regeneration.”

“We recognise the passion people feel for Glasgow and respect the wide range of views being expressed on how the city is represented in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Commonwealth Games.”

On Thursday, David Grevemberg wrote to Host City readers confirming his support for the plans. “Bringing the Red Road story into the opening ceremony was opportunity to commemorate an important part of Glasgow’s social history in a unique and powerful way,” he wrote.

“There is no doubt the decision to include it in the opening ceremony is new territory. It is reflective of an opening ceremony designed to celebrate Glasgow’s authenticity, passion and ambition.”

However, in the interests of public safety, the organising committee decided to back down over the weekend. In a statement, David Grevemberg, Chief Executive of Glasgow 2014 said: “We made it clear from the outset the absolute priority was safety and that this event would only happen during the opening ceremony if it was safe to do so.

“Over the past few days it has become clear that opinions have been expressed which change the safety and security context. Glasgow 2014, Games Partners and key stakeholders, including Police Scotland and Glasgow Housing Association, are not prepared to allow what was proposed to be a positive act of commemoration to create risk for all concerned, including the communities of north east Glasgow.”

The opening ceremony will still reflect the regeneration of Glasgow, with a renewed emaphasis on public engagement. A spokesperson for Glasgow 2014 told Host City: “We are working to ensure plans for the ceremonies are properly represented and we are reviewing how we can best engage with people on this issue.

“The ceremonies create a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to share positive aspects of city and national life with a global audience. Over coming weeks we look forward to sharing further details of the variety of different stories our Ceremonies will tell.”

Scottish supported businesses, which employ people with disabilities, have been awarded five contracts valuing £1m (US$1.7bn) to help prepare for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. 

Glasgow-based RSBi will provide a logistics workforce and handle materials for the Athletes’ Village. RSBi have also been awarded a contract for a specialist package including supply, installation and removal of curtains and blinds in the residential accommodation of athletes and team officials.

Dovetail will provide 7,500 single size mattress protectors while Haven will supply around 17,000 laundry bags for the Village. North Lanarkshire Industries (previously known as Beltane) will distribute baton-bearer uniforms for the domestic sector of the Queen’s Baton Relay, as well as being contracted to provide 7,500 pillows for the Athletes’ Village.

The supported business sector in Scotland provides employment to people with disabilities and a potential pathway into the open labour market. It employs around 1,000 people and generates a turnover of more than £32m (US$54m)per annum.

“The £1 million boost to Scottish supported businesses - on top of the 73 per cent of Games related contracts already secured by Scottish companies - is a perfect example of Scotland’s success in competing on the world stage,” said Fergus Ewing Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism.

“By helping people with disabilities to maintain and improve their overall independence and wellbeing, this announcement also reflects the crucial role supported businesses have in building a healthier and fairer Scotland.”

According to Paul Carey, Glasgow City Council’s convener of the regeneration and the economy policy development committee, Glasgow businesses and organisations have won more than £180million of Games-related contracts so far. “This is a tremendous economic legacy for the city,” he said.