Tickets went on sale on Friday 9 September for the Le Gruyère European Curling Championships, which will see the home ground of ice hockey team Braehead Clan transformed into a five sheet curling rink.

More than 25 nations are descending on Scotland for one of the biggest sporting events of the year, which takes place in Renfrewshire on the outskirts of Glasgow from 19-26 November.

“We can’t wait to bring the European Curling Championships to this venue with its great reputation for spectator ice sports,” said Susan Murrin, Event Manager for the 2016 European Curling Championships.

“Braehead Clan are renowned for their passionate following and exciting on ice displays and curling is no different with its intense competition and precision play. We look forward to staging an event here to remember and hope that everyone will enjoy a week of top flight sporting action.”

The Le Gruyère European Curling Championships will form part of EventScotland’s International Events Programme and UK Sport’s Major Event Programme and is supported by funding partners Renfrewshire Council, Glasgow City Marketing Bureau and The Royal Caledonian Curling Club.

“The European Curling Championships will see the finest players from across the continent and some of the world’s highest-ranked nations visit Scotland in November, providing a fantastic spectacle for fans at the intu Braehead Arena,” said Paul Bush OBE, VisitScotland’s Director of Events.

“We are delighted to support the event through EventScotland’s International Funding Programme and, following the success of both our men’s and women’s teams in recent years, we are confident there will be strong interest in tickets across the country for what promises to be a thrilling week of action on the ice.”

As well as crowning the European Champions in curling for both men and women, the event will determine qualification for the World Curling Championships in 2017, forming the pathway to Olympic qualification and the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.

Scotland’s representatives for the 2016 championships will be decided in October. Elite curlers vying for a place in Team Scotland include former European Champions and Olympic medallists Eve Muirhead and David Murdoch.

“We have regular sell-out crowds for our home games and the atmosphere in the arena is electric,” said Gareth Chalmers, Hockey & Operations Director at Braehead Clan.

“We’re sure that sports fans will enjoy watching the curling action up close and wish the European Championships every success.”

The semi-final of the 2016 Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group between will take place at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena from 16-18 September 2016 – and the host nation is upbeat about the benefits the event will bring.
The decision by the Lawn Tennis Association to host the tie between the Aegon GB team and Argentina follows Scotland’s successful hosting of Davis Cup matches last year.
“Scotland was delighted to host the Davis Cup first round and semi-final in 2015 and, on both occasions, the support at The Emirates proved why Scotland is the perfect stage for events of this magnitude,” Paul Bush OBE, VisitScotland’s Director of Events tells Host City.
“I have no doubt that this year’s semi-final against Argentina, which we are supporting through EventScotland’s International Programme, will be no different and expect tennis fans from across the UK and further afield to travel to Glasgow as Great Britain attempts to retain its Davis Cup title.”
The international appeal of the event is particularly attractive proposition for the host nation. 
“For Scotland as host nation, and Glasgow at a local level, major occasions such as this are hugely valuable. The sell-out matches in 2015 saw a total attendance of more than 47,000, with a significant proportion of those people, 31% and 42% respectively, travelling from outside of Scotland. We expect similar interest in September’s fixture, meaning, again, Scotland is set to benefit from the associated economic impact that this influx of visitors brings.
“Additionally, for both Scotland and Glasgow, the prospect of staging such an important match means an increase in exposure across all media formats both at home and abroad. In terms of reinforcing Scotland’s capability in staging world-leading events and promoting Scotland as a tourist destination, raising the nation’s profile in this way is critical.”
Tennis, along with cricket golf, basketball and athletics, is attracting more participants. According to statistics released in July by SportScotland, sports participation has risen over the last two years, with sports club membership rising from 706,764 to 768,212 since 2013/14. 
Scotland hosting the Davis Cup is set to increase this trend – particularly given that last year’s winners and Scottish brothers Andy and James Murray are currently on top form.
“The timing of the match lends itself to generating further legacy benefits by encouraging more young people to become involved in sport,” says Bush. 
“After Andy Murray’s second victory at Wimbledon, Jamie Murray’s continued success as one of the world’s best doubles players and shortly following tennis in the Rio Olympics, we are confident the Davis Cup can further inspire youngsters to take up tennis and become more active. This is vital for the development of the sport in Scotland and in encouraging young Scots to lead healthier lifestyles.”
 

Football teams from all regions of the world have convened in Glasgow for the Homeless World Cup, which kicked off on Sunday 10 July. 100,000 spectators are expected to visit Glasgow during the week-long festival.
Teams from North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australasia arrived at Glasgow International Airport and were greeted with music and dancing at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU), where they will be based during the tournament. 
In a welcome video to participants, HRH, The Duke of Cambridge said: “The scale of homelessness across the world is staggering, with 100 million people defined as homeless, and a further 1.6 billion lacking adequate housing.
“The Homeless World Cup Foundation is taking a unique approach to this problem, using the universal language of football to tackle the issue.
“Each year, they bring together 52 teams from every continent to compete in a street football tournament, this year hosted by Glasgow.
“Every one of the 512 players in this tournament is homeless. They have each engaged with programmes run by the foundation to deal with some incredible personal challenges to make it here.
“This competition is a celebration of all that they have achieved so far, using football as a means to get back into a more stable life.
“For seven days in July, George Square in the heart of the city will be the most inspiring place on the planet.”
George Square in the city centre will host all 416 matches, which are free to attend. 
The Homeless World Cup is organised through a three-way partnership between the Homeless World Cup Foundation, the Scottish Government (delivered via EventScotland), and Glasgow City Council (delivered via Glasgow Life).
“While the focus will rightly be on football thanks to a partnership between Glasgow Life and the Big Lottery, around 150 volunteers have been recruited for a variety of roles on and off the pitch,” said Councillor Archie Graham OBE, Depute Leader of Glasgow City Council and Chair of Glasgow Life.
“The legacy project will give the volunteers new skills and confidence though a post-games programme of sports coaching and creative writing.”
Welcoming the teams to Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “The Homeless World Cup is a sporting event like no other. We know that sport has immense power to give people a purpose, to improve both physical and mental health and to boost people’s self-esteem.
“In bringing together competitors from over 50 countries, each with their own story of personal hardship that most of us will never have to tackle, the Homeless World Cup will energise and engage people who, for whatever reason, have become socially excluded.
“For the players, it’s an opportunity to develop resilience, achieve personal goals and help prevent repeat homelessness.
“And let’s not forget the chance to represent your country on the international stage is a huge honour that for many players, was only ever a distant dream. That’s why innovative initiatives such as the Homeless World Cup are so important, and why I’m looking forward to a spectacular and inspiring tournament."
Homeless World Cup president Mel Young said: “Make no mistake, this is going to be the most an inspiring event, a resounding success, made possible by players who have dreams, volunteers with heart, and a Scottish public with genuine spirit.”
 

Now in its third year of rapid expansion, Host City is the largest meeting of cities and sports, business and entertainment events. More than 350 delegates from cross-sector events, cities and suppliers are set to attend and exhibit at Host City 2016.

The Host City 2016 agenda is now published on the new www.hostcity.com website, with an impressive and rapidly growing initial list of speakers participating. The owners, organisers, hosts and enablers of the greatest events will address the critical issues and opportunities they face.

Confirmed speakers so far include:

Sir Craig Reedie CBE, Vice President, IOC and President, WADA 
Paul Bush OBE, Director of Events, Visit Scotland
Sarah Lewis, Secretary General, FIS and AIOWF (Association of Winter Olympic Sports Federations)
Dimitri Kerkentzes, Deputy Secretary General, BIE (World Expos)
Dr. Reinhard Pfeiffer, Deputy CEO, Messe Munich
Adriaan Visser, Vice Mayor of Rotterdam
Prof Dr Ugur Erdener, President, NOC of Turkey; Executive Board Member, IOC and WADA 
Carine Saloff-Coste, Head of Economic Development, City of Paris 
John Langford, Director of Live Entertainment, SSE Hydro & SECC
Michael Nagy, Director, Rio Convention & Visitors Bureau
Kulveer Ranger, Vice-President, Public Affairs and Strategic Communications, Atos UK
Sooad Islam, Associate, Populous
David de Behr, Head of Global Events, Aggreko
Ignacio Packer, Secretary General, Terre des Hommes International Federation

Session topics include “Has Sport Lost Its Integrity and How Can It Win Confidence Back?”; “How Hosts can be Safe and Secure”; “Creating Entertaining Experiences for Visitors”; “Harnessing Disruptive Innovation and Digital Transformation”; and “Business Events and Economic Development”.

Host City is the world’s largest international forum where global decision makers for event destinations, international federations, event owners, rights holders and suppliers can connect, create new business opportunities, generate media attention and foster new working partnerships across sporting, cultural, entertainment and business event sectors.

Please note that the date of Host City has changed from 16-17th to 21st-22nd November, through dialogue with ANOC and WADA to maximise synergy with their activities. 

Cavendish Group looks forward to welcoming you to Host City 2016 at the whiskey tasting reception on 20th November, 2016.

For more information and to register visit www.hostcity.com

For speaking opportunities please contact Ben Avison on +44 (0) 7876 682072 or ben.avison@hostcity.net

Host City: We are very much looking forward to your participation in Host City 2016. What do you think is most interesting about the conference agenda?
John Langford: I think it’s a much needed conversation piece, realising the economic impact that big events can deliver. In particular I think there’s a growing focus on cultural events. 

Host City: Are we seeing a greater convergence of sport and entertainment?
John Langford: Yes we are definitely seeing more of that and I think there are two reasons. The first is that the lines between sport and non-sport entertainment are becoming blurred. We are expecting it to be integrated: whether it’s a Super Bowl half time show or an opening or closing ceremony of Formula 1 Rocks, it’s becoming expected. 
The second reason is that it adds value to sponsors and consumers. It brings in additional people and additional money. My wife will come with me to sport events if she knows there is going to be some kind of entertainment that she is going to be interested in. That brings in more eyeballs and more sponsors. 

Host City: In relation to your experiences as a promoter and venue manager, what do you think are the critical issues for customer experiences?
John Langford: The first thing is truly understanding what the customer experience is. In our case, the customer experience begins the moment the person starts looking for tickets, not when they arrive at the venue. 
And if you take that to a city context, it’s the whole experience that someone has. If they are a music tourist, it’s not just seeing Coldplay at the arena or the stadium; it’s the whole experience that leads up to that: the travel, the hotel, the food, the whole lot.
Secondly, we are all striving to exceed expectation and for me that’s a measure of great customer experience – we need to truly understand what the customer is expecting and then exceed that. 
Thirdly, this really means that all the players need to work in a synchronised approached and that is a real challenge for cities – how do we work better with transport hosts, airports, hotels etc. to deliver a city-wide customer experience?

Host City: How does SECC work with the city of Glasgow to achieve this?
John Langford: Fortunately, the city of Glasgow is quite progressive in the way it approaches big events, more so than most other cities around the world. It’s always had a big drive to lead on hosting events, whether that’s conferences – they’ve got a very successful conference team at the city marketing bureau – or the major events team, who we worked with very closely on events like the MTV European Music Awards and Radio 1’s Big Weekend. We’ve got the MOBO awards coming up at the end of the year – those are driven by the city as opposed to promoters. 
The real benefit of Glasgow is that there is a city strategy to drive cultural tourism. And it works both ways: the city can drive things to us, and if we have an idea we can drive it back to the city. A good example is the Ignition Motoring Festival in August, which is a concept that we came up with and the city bought into it and essentially it’s a whole campus-wide festival of motoring. 

Host City: How do you go about programming content at SECC and SSE?
John Langford: We are quite fortunate in a way in that we don’t have major competition for our size in a good 200 mile radius. And Glasgow audiences are great; they are some of the best audiences in the world and we know from the research we’ve seen that they buy about 50 per cent more tickets that the UK average for live music events. 
Typically anything that comes to the SSE Hydro is booked in the same way that the O2 is booked in London: a big artist like Madonna, U2 or Timberlake will typically book the O2 and the Hydro and then fill in the rest of UK and Europe on the back of that. So we are very fortunate in that we get a lot of proactive bookings; promoters will come to us. 
We do however have challenges outside those busy periods where we try and create our own content and that requires working with promoters and artists and festival organisers to create events. 
We are very cautious not to be promoters. Some venues feel differently but we feel we are not in the business of promoting. We would rather be in the business of coming up with concepts, taking a share of the risk, but we’d rather work with an established promoter to actually deliver the event. 
We work very closely with AEG that owns the O2 in London on a country music festival called Country to Country. We are working on another music festival, the genre of which I can’t share just yet. 

Host City: So you are moving towards “festivalisation” as well?
John Langford: Yes, I think that’s an audience trend. People are expecting bang for their buck. Way Out West in Gothenburg is an example of an urban festival, or the Great Escape in Brighton – those are examples of things that we would certainly like to see more of in Glasgow, not just on our campus. We feel that we are part of the fabric of Glasgow, just as much as Barrowlands or Hampden Park stadium.

Host City: How important is nurturing local talent for cities to develop themselves as cultural hubs?
John Langford: I think it’s all part of the same ecosystem. You need record labels, promoters, managers, recording studios; you need a whole ecosystem that creatively feeds itself. 
Some of the research that I’ve seen on developing music cities is that it’s important to have all of the aspects working together; and ideally that it’s driven by the city and I think that’s probably the biggest challenge for a lot of cities. 
It’s a bit like herding cats, particularly in the creative industries; there are a lot of entrepreneurs and independent thinkers and I think the challenge is creating an environment within which they can work. You need to lead without pushing and I think that’s a real challenge for cities. 

Host City: How important is venue planning in creating entertainment hubs – not just physical venues but also using open spaces?
John Langford: Glasgow has a good range of venues, indoor and outdoor, sports and entertainment. I think it’s key that cities have that. 
Secondly it’s licensing and I think a lot of cities need to work harder on this. You need to get all the city structures working together if the object is to bring more events into the city. Whether its occasional licenses for drinking, food or capacity, everything needs to work together. 
You need a progressive planning regime in the city. In the UK there are a lot of traditional music venues that are being squeezed by pressure from residents. The gentrification of areas is causing a lot of venues to shut down, so there is a big drive, certainly from the music industry, to protect those venues.
But what you’re talking about is going that extra step. It takes a liberal, forward thinking city to recognise that there is going to be a bit of pain sometimes, whether it’s noise or hundreds of thousands of people coming to your city for an event – the progressive cities realise that’s where the economic impact comes from. You need to take a bit of pain sometimes to get the gain.

*UK Music report “Wish You Were Here 2016”

John Langford, Director of Live Entertainment at SECC and SSE Hydro, is speaking on 22nd November at Host City 2016 conference and exhibition on the subject of “Creating Entertaining Experiences for Visitors".

A new fixture has appeared on the calendar of international multi-sports events. The European Championships, taking place for the first time on 1-12 August 2018, has been described by observers as either a repackaging of existing championships or a serious challenger to the European Games – the continental mega event initiated by the European Olympic Committees (EOC) at Baku in 2015. 

The organisers themselves describe the event as a “coming together of existing championships”. Six sports – aquatics, cycling, golf, gymnastics, rowing and triathlon – will be hosted in Glasgow, with athletics taking place in Berlin from 7-12 August. 

The concept is run by and on behalf of the European Federations: European Athletics; Ligue Européenne de Natation (LEN, or European Aquatics); the European Cycling Union (UEC); World Rowing (FISA), the European Triathlon Union (ETU); the European Union of Gymnastics (UEG); and the European Tour and the Ladies European Tour as Golf Europe combined. 

The broadcast partners for the event are the European Broadcasting Union (EBU)’s free to air members.  
“We were very happy to see that Glasgow and Berlin were supporting the idea and particularly that the federations took this major step forward to agree to this concept of having their European championships under one umbrella in the two cities,” says Stefan Kürten, Director of Eurovision Services & Sports Rights at the EBU.

Elevating sports together
“For us, this is a milestone in the development of sports in Europe. This concept will clearly contribute to maintaining European sports on this level where it belongs,” says Kürten.
“We want the public in Europe to focus on the top Olympic sports in Europe. We want to show to the public the top athletes in these sports that are already visible on free to air, and we want to centralise that. 

“By centralising them we are not creating an additional event; it is bundling existing events. We as broadcasters are not interested in more events. There is sometimes the belief that the more you create, the more interest you generate. I can say from a broadcaster’s perspective this is wrong. You have to focus on the top events and make them even more valuable. 

“Therefore we think there will be an increase in audience by these multi-sports events so that will be to the benefit of the sports and of the host cities and clearly also to our benefit.

“On top of that, we think by putting these events together we also want to emphasise the relevance and importance of European sports, because the cradle of the Olympic sports is Europe and we are afraid that if that part falls, gets weaker, that has an impact on world sports and we don’t want that. We think as broadcasters: let’s promote the strongest, push it further, and be creative and innovative. 

“The message that we got back from the members was that the broadcasters were extremely pleased with such a milestone event. We have 23 broadcasters with us already – the top broadcasters – and they will be all the main channels.”

Frank Kowalski, Managing Director of the Berlin 2018 local organising committee says: “Working together with Glasgow, we are really proud to be in the first move of this European project. 

“For the city and for us it wasn’t easy because the situation came after awarding the 2018 European Athletics championships to Berlin. But we are totally convinced that this is the right step for the summer sports to get the power against other sports like football. 
“We all have to learn not to produce what we like to produce, but what our clients like to have. I am convinced that we will have a lot of synergies and will take every opportunity we have for us, for the European Athletics Championships and for the city of Berlin. We have strong partners and we are getting closer and closer through the collaboration – and it makes sense.”

Scheduling around the crown jewels
“In athletics it’s very important that our time schedule is respected,” says European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen. “We have a long tradition in having our biennial Championships in this week and we made very sure from the beginning that our prime time had to be protected. We agreed that with LEN and with our Glasgow friends.

“This is the jewel in the crown for European Athletics and we have to protect that jewel and I think we have achieved this – we’ll soon be ready to give out the timetable.”

Paolo Barelli, President of LEN says: “What we are doing is very easy, it is not so complicated. The first period, the first part of the Championships, is for aquatics. The second part is for track and field, with one day of overlapping.”

“It is a coordinated approach,” says Kürten. “The idea is to have as few overlaps as possible but to have a natural flow of medal ceremonies and heats so we have on-going interest that is well coordinated.”

Colin Hartley, Championships Director of Glasgow 2018 says: “The collaboration to create a schedule that works for as many reasons as possible is already at version one. When we unveil that schedule it will be as good as we can achieve in terms of city, sport and of course for the broadcast viewers.”

The challenge of selling tickets
Tickets go on sale on 22 August 2016 – the day after the Rio 2016 Olympic Games finishes. Berlin has the biggest sales challenge, in filling the 74,475 seat Olympiastadion.

“For us it’s a very big task to fill the Olympic stadium in Berlin,” says Arne Hansen. “But I hope that all the excitement of what’s happening up in Glasgow will carry over to people in Berlin, so people will see next week we are in Berlin to see the athletics.

“We have gone into it with open eyes, even if this contract was signed before my election, which was one year ago. I am fully enthusiastic and behind it.

“We all remember Berlin 2009 and that incredible atmosphere. It was really something, because of one thing; you had the local athletes plus some superstars from Jamaica. But local athletes are what you need. 

“I am sure that the German federation will bring the best out in this Championships. 74,000 is a very big thing to sell, but if somebody can do it in Europe, Berlin can do it. We hope that they will have bigger viewership and more people coming to the stadium than ever.”

In Glasgow, the organisers are looking into possibilities for ticketing across the different sports. 

“On the back of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the appetite for sports is very much there,” says Colin Hartley, Championships Director of Glasgow 2018.

“People going to sports they haven’t seen before is a proven thing that they are interested. So on the back of that, we will definitely bring ticketing together. And we’ll be promoting the events in Berlin as they will in Glasgow. For the spectators, online and social media will be very much a seamless experience.”

A threat to the European Games?
The next European Games is due to take place in 2019, with EOC President Patrick Hickey having stated in November 2015 that Russia would be the preferred host. 

However, Russia’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko is reported to have said that Russia never applied to host the Games and would be too busy to host any other major events until 2020. And with Russia’s participation in athletics at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games under threat from doping revelations, the country’s suitability to host the European Games is also under scrutiny.

Hickey and EOC Vice President Janez Kocijancic both contacted Host City to say the EOC would not be making a statement on this matter “for the moment”. 

Hickey also referred Host City to a letter he sent to the European Federations in which he stated that their contract with the European Championships management company would violate EU competition law, as it seeks to restrict them from "competing in another multi-sport continental event within a year of the conclusion of the 2018 European Sport Championships".

“I haven’t spoken with Patrick Hickey since the latest news about Russian internal things going on there,” said Arne Hansen at SportAccord. “We have an agreement with the EBU; our best athletes will be in Berlin. And if the conditions are right we will also be in the European Games.
“There will not be a European Athletics Championships of any kind in the European Games – no youth, junior, under 23, or senior. But I don’t say it will be low level. Athletics is a big sport; hopefully we can find other interesting things to put in the Games. I am not saying no to new competitions; that would be against my nature.”

It is also uncertain whether the EBU will put its weight behind the European Games. “We have had discussions, we have looked into it,” says Kürten. “It was difficult to follow the European Games on TV, there was not such broad interest in Europe. We think this is a bit of a different event, so for us it was clearly relevant to focus on the top sports.”

Barelli is keen to stress that the European Championships is not a threat to the activities of the European Olympic Committees or the other European Federations. “We are not creating any European Games. I know that someone tried to make some misunderstanding about that. Track and field manages its own championship; I don’t want to interfere with its championship, and track and field is not permitted to interfere with my championship.

“What we are doing is putting together seven sports, with the help of EBU, with the help of the family, with the help of Glasgow, just to have something more to add to the value of each discipline. It was very difficult to create but when someone put their mind to this project is was easy to answer the question why. We think this is going to be a good format for the future.”

Big host city sought for 2022
No additional sports are being considered for the 2018 event, says Kürten. “We didn’t want to overcharge; the idea was to go with specific group of sports that couldn’t clash; it couldn’t be too long. If you have the first edition of such an event it’s good to start with quality and not to overload it.”

If 2018 is successful, the European Championships will take place again in 2022. Arne Hansen says: “We have, together with EBU, together with other partners, set criteria for 2018. I that is fulfilled, we will go along with 2022.”

European Athletics already has 11 countries bidding for their 2022 Championships, in a process that was launched before the possibility of the combined event arose. 

“It is a huge thing that we already have 11 countries in Europe bidding for the 2022 European Athletics Championships. We will go out to them, together with the other sports, to find potential bidders from the 11,” says Arne Hansen. “We have already started a bidding process, so it would be very hard to go outside those 11 countries to find the next organiser for the next European Athletics Championships.”

Kürten says the aim is to award the 2022 European Championships to a major European city. “The interest when looking at host cities is clearly there; in this respect we expect this to materialise in a big city – that’s what we are trying to achieve.

Asked if the next edition will take place in just one city next time, Kürten said “It’s too early to say. That’s open; probably one city”.

This article is Host City's coverage of a European Championships media roundtable at SportAccord Convention, with further input from the EOC.

Gymnastics and Golf are to join the prestigious line up of leading sports who will stage their European Championships together in 2018 for the first time in their history, the sports’ European associations announced on Friday.

The dates of the inaugural Championships were also confirmed as the 1st to 12th August 2018.

The two new sports join Athletics, Aquatics, Cycling, Rowing and Triathlon, who have decided to come together for the first time for the European Sports Championships which will be staged in the Host Cities of Glasgow and Berlin.

 “One of the challenges this project had to face was to create a programme that could offer the best conditions for athletes to express themselves while also creating interest for the main TV networks in Europe. The result of very fruitful discussions allow me to express my satisfaction that Glasgow and Berlin will showcase one of the best events of all time,” said Paolo Barelli, President of the Ligue Européenne de Natation (European Aquatics.

“Each individual European Federation will create a fantastic programme that will maximise interest and LEN is proud to be a pioneering partner of such an ambitious project that will contribute significantly to the development of sport.”

The European Artistic Gymnastics Championships will be staged in Glasgow at the SSE Hydro while the brand new European Golf team championships will take place at Scotland’s prestigious Gleneagles course.

 “It is very exciting for Golf Europe to be invited to join some of Europe’s leading sports in the inaugural European Sports Championships, with three new European Golf Team Championships for female, male and mixed teams,” said Keith Waters, The European Tour’s Chief Operating Officer and Director of International Policy.

“This is part of our vision of encouraging all European nations to participate in golf, and it is fitting that Gleneagles will host the first staging of this event, having been the venue for last year’s Ryder Cup, when Europe memorably united through team golf.”

Berlin will host the 2018 European Athletics Championships from the 7th to 12th August, with Glasgow hosting the six other European Championships over the 12 days.

“As one of the key sports, European Athletics has been happy to lead the process in the creation of the principles of good governance for the inaugural European Sports Championships, and we are pleased to move forward with this strong framework in place,” said European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen.

“We are looking forward to a fantastic European Athletics Championships in Berlin in 2018 as part of this exciting multi-sport concept. We are sure the European Sports Championships will bring additional values and benefits to athletics in Europe and to the Berlin championships.”

The partnership between European Athletics, Aquatics (LEN), Cycling (UEC), Rowing (FISA) and Triathlon (ETU) welcomed European Gymnastics (UEG) and Golf Europe is set to create a major new multi-sport event on the world stage, attracting a projected television audience of around 850 million and an even wider audience via multiple digital platforms.

The newly-formed European Sports Championships 2018 Board 2018 Board also ratified the organisational rules and decision-making processes to ensure strong governance going forward.

This innovative new approach by the governing bodies, who announced their plans earlier this year, brings the existing European Championships together from seven sports in a sustainable format once every four years in order to continue building their prestige, profile and media exposure.

Around 1,500 athletes will compete in Berlin as part of the European Athletics Championships while approximately 3,025 athletes will visit Scotland for the other six events.

All seven Championships will be staged within the agreed date window.

“With all the sports now confirmed for 2018 Glasgow is again ready to show the excellence and innovation with which it can stage world class events on the global stage,” said Councillor Frank McAveety, Leader of Glasgow City Council.

“Major events have become a crucial part of our city’s economy and we can now look forward with tremendous excitement and focus to partnering with this fantastic group of sports to continue to create opportunity and help improve health and well-being outcomes for our citizens.”

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the consortium for the continent’s public service free-to-air broadcasters, will be the broadcast partner for the combined championships, which are expected to generate more than 2750 hours of programming across Europe’s biggest broadcasters.

EBU President Jean-Paul Philippot, said: “With seven sports now part of the first edition, the European Sports Championships will be the centrepiece of the sports season in Europe and public service media is proud to participate in the promotion of European sports and its athletes through extensive free-to air coverage across television, digital and radio.”

The Golf event will be staged over 5 days and include men’s team, women’s team and mixed team competition.

Two male and female athletes per nation will participate, with the top 16 European nations included.

The Gymnastics event will include both the Men’s and Women’s Artistic Championships, with around 600 athletes competing in Glasgow over six days.

“We are really excited to be included in the 2018 European Sports Championships as it represents a huge opportunity for Gymnastics to further raise its profile right across Europe,” , said Georges Guelzec, President of European Gymnastics.

“We can also think of no better city than Glasgow to host our 600 competitors who will compete in the men’s and women’s European Artistic Championships.”

Innovative event hosting formats is a key theme of Host City 2015, which takes place in Glasgow on 9th to 10th November. Register your attendance at www.bidtowin-hostcity.net