Glasgow has been announced as the host city for the problematic 2026 Commonwealth Games, which will be a smaller version of the multi-sport event.
The existence of the 2026 Games was called into question when the original hosts, the Australian state of Victoria, withdrew last year, citing mounting costs.
However, the Scottish government effectively gave the green light to Glasgow last month, and the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) confirmed on Tuesday that the 2014 hosts will host the next Games from July 23 to August 2, 2026.
The Games will feature only ten sports, compared to 19 during the 2022 event in the English city of Birmingham.
Para sport will once again be fully integrated as “a key priority and point of difference for the Games,” with six para-sports on the schedule.
The calendar will include athletics and para-athletics, swimming and para-swimming, artistic gymnastics, track cycling and para track cycling, netball, weightlifting and para powerlifting, boxing, judo, bowls and para bowls, and 3×3 wheelchair basketball.
Triathlon, diving, hockey, T20 cricket, squash, badminton, and rugby sevens are among the sports excluded from the 2022 Games.
Up to 74 Commonwealth nations and territories are scheduled to send over 3,000 athletes to compete.
The CGF stated that Glasgow 2026 will bring more than £100 million ($130 million) in inward investment to the city without the requirement for public funding.
After Victoria backed out, Australia will supply some funding, with a projected cost of more than A$6 billion ($4 billion).
“On behalf of the entire Commonwealth sport movement, we are delighted to officially confirm that the 2026 Commonwealth Games will take place in the host city of Glasgow,” said CGF chief executive Katie Sadleir.
‘Sustainable Model’
Britain and Australia have staged five of the past six editions between them, but Sadleir believes a slimmed-down model will increase the potential pool of future hosts.
“The 2026 Games will be a bridge to the Commonwealth Games of tomorrow,” said Sadleir, adding Glasgow’s”sustainable model” would increase “the scope of countries capable of hosting”.
Commonwealth Games Scotland chairman Ian Reid said it had not been easy to decide which sports to include.
“I think everybody recognises that these events need to be more affordable, lighter and we would have loved to have all of our sports and all of our athletes competing but unfortunately it’s just not deliverable or affordable for this timeframe,” he told the BBC.
But Sadleir, speaking at an event in Glasgow on Tuesday, insisted sports dropped from the Glasgow schedule could return at subsequent Commonwealth Games.
“It’s always a very difficult decision when you have to decide which sports are in the programme and which sports are not,” she said.
“Every time we run a Games, we only have two compulsory sports, athletics and swimming, and the rest are all up for that discussion and negotiation between the host and the Commonwealth Games Federation.
“To the sports (missing out) it must be incredibly disappointing, but what I must say to you is that because you’re not in the programme for 2026 does not mean that you’re not a key sport for us in the future.”
The Commonwealth Games, held every four years, evolved out of the British Empire Games and is still made up mainly of countries and territories once subject to British imperial rule.