Christopher BarrettGlasgow 2026 CEO Phil Batty OBE has said that Commonwealth Sport’s new blueprint for the Commonwealth Games will help more nations and cities host the event.
Speaking on the Behind the Games podcast, Batty (pictured left) described how the shortened timeline for this summer’s event has meant reassessing the model of delivery that works for all parts of the Commonwealth.
Set to take place from 23 July to 2 August, Glasgow 2026 will host 3,000 athletes from 74 nations and territories. Glasgow is set to host a scaled-down version of the Games, after the Australian state of Victoria withdrew as the host citing escalating costs. Glasgow last hosted the event in 2014 at a cost of £543 million. The Commonwealth Games Federation offered Scotland £100m from the compensation owed by the Victorian government for withdrawing as the host of the event.
The Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games will see Trivandi take responsibility for the overlay and venue operations at the sports venues, while the company’s sustainability arm The Bulb said it will ensure every element of venue transformation is designed for reuse, monitored for energy efficiency and minimises environmental impact.
Last month, it was announced that the event’s opening ceremony, on 23 July, will take place at OVO Hydro, marking the first time in the history of the Commonwealth Games that an opening ceremony has been held in an indoor arena.
“The permission to reinvent and reimagine [the Games] has been a gift,” said Batty during the podcast interview with Trivandi co-founder James Bulley OBE (pictured right).
“Major events take lots of different shapes and sizes, but often they don’t fit in the place they’re being hosted in, and what we’ve done here is we’ve been able to look at all the strengths of Glasgow and design the competition to fit and use the venues to the best of their ability,” continued Batty.
“That’s meant, yes, it is going to look different. We’ve taken ten sports, six of which are fully integrated Para sports, and we’ve supercharged them. So you have the largest-ever swimming programme in the history of the Commonwealth Games… We have more track cycling – and we know Glasgow loves cycling – than in Commonwealth Games history.
“And, probably most importantly, we have the largest-ever Para sport medal programme in the Commonwealth Games. The first medal on the first day of the Games will be Para Powerlifting, which has never happened in the history of the Commonwealth Games, and it’s been around for 96 years.
“That’s a bit of the story that’s maybe been lost in the history of time. There was this ten-year commitment to reimagining what the Commonwealth Games looked like… It was only being hosted by a small number of nations, which, if you want to be truly inclusive to the 74 nations and territories, you need to have a model and a fit that can work in all parts of the Commonwealth.
“And that’s exactly what this journey has been about. The partnership has sped that process up and given us that blank sheet of paper – but also with a trusted partner in Glasgow and Scotland – to go, let’s demonstrate what best looks like. Let’s show what a new blueprint, a new prototype, looks like.”