Glasgow’s ‘T20 Games’ may be the blueprint that saves the Commonwealth Games
The Scottish love a bargain buy and they got one. But can the Common-Not-So-Wealthy Games work?
The Commonwealth Games are alive – but are they kicking?
You could understand the relief and mild excitement of Commonwealth Games officials when they announced that Glasgow had dived in to rescue the 2026 Games after cash-strapped Victoria pulled the plug a year ago.
For the Scots, who famously love a bargain, it was a deceptively risk-free option.
The scaled down Games, with as few as 10 sports, are expected to cost around $220m and Scotland was given $200m out of the compensation paid by Victoria when they bailed out.
So for a lazy $20m you can buy Glasgow’s most expensive house – or the Commonwealth Games.
The bar is low, the vibe quietly upbeat as it often is when something replaces nothing.
Better to have the Common-Not-So-Wealthy Games than diddly squat, is the widespread thought.
But nothing can mask the fact that this is crisis time for the Games.
When you have to go on bended knee and plead for a city to host the Games you know you are in trouble.
When Brisbane hosted the Games back in 1982, the Queensland capital was in a bidding process with the Nigerian capital Lagos, Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur and Birmingham.
Now finding a Games venue is like trying to find a place for that end-of-year school parents’ barbecue that everyone is happy to go to but no one wants to host.
The Olympics needed a good Games in Paris and they got one.
Can the same happen for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow?
Australia loves the Commonwealth Games mainly because we drown in gold medal glory.
But the Games, special as they are for sports such as swimming and hockey, have been in graceful decline for decades.
They peaked in the 1970s and ’80s in a more secluded world when television sport was not the all-consuming beast it is today.
Back then you couldn’t watch Greg Norman win many of his golf tournaments in America on Australian television or Pat Cash play outside the majors, or the Tour de France.
Compared with local football codes and cricket, the Commonwealth Games felt big, bold and global.
Now there’s 24-hour sport being beamed on to your phone from around the globe, making the once treasured status of the Commonwealth Games seem less novel and special than they were.
The Games are not simply under siege from rival sports – it’s Netflix and every other service snatching eyeballs away from prime-time sport.
If you are a glass half full sort of sports fan you might well reason it may not be a bad thing for Glasgow to become the T20 version of the Commonwealth Games.
In a world where people’s attention spans are getting shorter, picking 10 sports is not a bad move. They should do what the Olympics do with new sports and go for the ones that attract the most eyeballs.
If Glasgow can produce a light, bright, cost-friendly Games that rates its pants off, we may have stumbled onto the Commonwealth Games masterplan of the future.
If it fails, it will be a serious blow to its future.
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