Today's announcement that Glasgow will host the 2014 Commonwealth Games from July 23rd to August 3rd is great news for the city, for Scotland and, I dare say, for sports fans. Since coming to Scotland just over a year ago, I have been very impressed by the friendliness and general competence and efficiency of the people (and hopefully will therefore not be bad news for taxpayers). Glasgow is a city on the rise with a good atmosphere, a feeling of safety and the Scots do know how to party .... warning to Canadians, don't try to outdrink the Scots!
The Games website has lots of information and the Candidate City Summary document indicates that prices are reasonable - the most expensive is £175 for best seats at the opening or closing ceremonies. For individual sports, best seats are a max of £40 or £25 in most cases. With the Canadian dollar appreciating almost daily against the GB£, now at $1.96 per £, it is beginning to get less costly for Canadians.
Scotland has long been a tourist mecca and all those other attractions can add to the pleasure of the games, like visits to single malt distilleries, castles, museums, hill walking and golf courses for those of my tastes. The only funny thing visitors might find is the language - Scots will understand your english with no difficulty at all (too much american tv I think) but depending how careful they are in speaking, you may not understand them because of accent, phrases and words (e.g. cannae = cannot, to blether is to chat, or "tell her I'm asking for her" means "say hello to her for me")
Friday, 9 November 2007
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2 comments:
We're not all convinced it's going to be brilliant for those of us who live here in Glasgow!
dontbackthebid.blogspot.com
To me the biggest potential negative is whether there will be large cost over-runs. If it is true that 70% of the required facilities are already in place then that helps reduce the cost risk. I haven't done so but I'd look at the assumptions on which the estimates are based to give a stronger opinion. One thing I've heard that isn't good is the fact that skilled tradespeople in some trades are becoming scarce, e.g. plumbers or as they are fondly referred to "lavvy-divers". In that case, delays and cost over-runs could happen, or maybe a big influx from eastern European countries.
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