Is it time to knock the Commonwealth Games on the head?

[LaliqueSaltGrinder]

I live in Glasgow and grew up in Edinburgh. There was a massive buzz around the Commonwealth Games in 1986 in Edinburgh, and the 2014 Commonwealth Games were such a massive event for the city with thousands of volunteers, events sold out within minutes and it was just brilliant.

The next games starts on Thursday and we're only hosting as nobody else wanted to or could afford to. They have scaled it back to far fewer events, they are struggling for volunteers (I initially applied then withdrew, and had an email yesterday telling me there was still time!), the events have not sold out, the collective feeling is that it's all just a bit meh and not worth getting ecxited about.

Given that the commonwealth games grew out of the Empire Games it just seems like it's run its course and after this event someone/King Charles needs to put it out of its misery.

I live in Scotland and looked at buying tickets but there were ridiculously expensive and very short in duration.

e.g an athletics ticket would be 90 minute long and you would only get to see 2 sports.

I've got athletics tickets and the evening ones run from 6.30pm to 9.45pm so more than three hours. Some of mine will feature 8 or more finals. Sprints, longer distance on track and throws and jumps on the field. Not different sports as such but multiple disciplines. I paid as little as £26 for the morning sessions and I am pretty sure they are not the cheapest seats either.

Yes, I got hbo for the europa league, and at 4.99 kept it for this. Ill binnitnoff after the super cup! The coverage is good and extensive. Enjoyed swimming and gymnastics today.

Something that was mentioned by one of the commentators last night was that it takes some participants nearly 2 days to get to the venue.

Its not very environmentally friendly.

From an athlete's point if view if you are in a smaller nation or territory then there are very few multisport events which would give you the experience that the CG does. Athletes seem genuinely excited to compete and attend.

Glasgow 2026 is the first of a new model of much cheaper and sustainable games. The cost is around £150m compared to Birmingham which was about £600m and Victoria (who should have hosted 2026) pulled.out because they overspent on new venues. Glasgow is using existing venues and was probably the only city able to step in with less than 2 years to deliver the event.

On the broadcast point, the BBC were outbid by other channels. That is a shame for people who only watch free to air channels, but blame the BBC for thinking they would be awarded it without bidding high enough.

They're not covering it because they were outbid for it not because they "aren't bothering with it" 😂

I tried to book tickets a year ago when they opened booking up to Scotland only postcodes. I couldn’t get over the prices! About £150 to take a family of four to watch the swimming. I gave up after looking at a couple of other sports, just couldn’t justify that cost when the kids may have had enough after an hr or so!

There seems to be almost zero press coverage of it so far. I hadn't even realised it had started. I'm not planning to watch any of it. It does all seem a bit outdated bringing together the colonies to perform for us.

I agree, no-one really cares, lots of athletes pulled out. No one has the money

The 2014 Games were such a great time for the city, everyone was buzzing with excitement, there was stuff going on at Glasgow Green and in George Square, red arrow fly-past at opening ceremony, loads of people coming out on the streets to watch the marathon and the road cycling, thousands of volunteers and sell-out crowds at Hampden for the athletics and Ibrox for the rugby 7s. This time round the athletics is being held in a venue a fifth of the size and there's no rugby, hockey, badminton.

The collective feeling in Glasgow is just one of "meh".

I'm in Glasgow and I'm really excited about the Games. For a start they finally got round to resurfacing the absolute danger of a road next to the Emirates or whatever it's called now.

What a shame. I lived in Glasgow in 2014 and loved it! Hope they can drum up some joy for it this time around.

I enjoyed the opening ceremony and watched games highlights on C5 this morning. Will catch that each day.

Must be great for athletes from smaller nations and the integration of the para teams is such a good thing.

The BBC did bid for coverage but lost out to HBO.

I agree that it gives some smaller nations a chance to compete. And the sheer pride of athletes from these countries really shines through!
I love seeing and hearing the passion of the anthems being sung, it’s really meaningful for the athletes, their families and supporters.
And of course a home Games means Flower of Scotland is sung with the most gusto of all, love it!
Ive enjoyed watching it on BBC Alba for free.

And how environmentally friendly would it have been to have everyone flying into Victoria Australia, the original
host who pulled out.

Glasgow stepped into the breach and saved these Games.

Honeslty some folk just love a fucking moan whatever.

You do realise Glasgow had less than 2 years to organise this rather than the usual 6-8 year cycle?

I think they’ve done a bloody good job considering they took over at short notice.

I'm just back after flying up from London to see some of the more niche events that I hadn't seen before. We had a brilliant time.

Some of our tickets were only £10, although finals were expensive and we didn't look at athletics beciase we're going to Birmingham for the European Champs.

As I understood it, the scaled back event was entirely funded by the Commonwealth Games and Glasgow didn't put any money in.

Just got in from the stadium and the final athletics session. Bloody brilliant. We had tickets for a variety of events over the last two days and had a great time at them all. The volunteers were all cheerful and helpful and I can’t imagine the work that must have gone into organising something of that scale in two years. Well done Glasgow!

I read that the compensation Australia had to pay for pulling out has easily covered the cost of the scaled-back version.

Yes we were at the stadium tonight as well, amazing evening. So excited for our British medallists!

And I agree with a PP, hearing the anthems sung has been very emotional. I heard the Land of my Fathers sung in Welsh and more than once the Australian anthem sung. I chimed in on Jerusalem a couple of times – and yes Flower of Scotland sung by hundreds maybe thousands of people (certainly tonight) was amazing.

I do think these games, while for sure a lot of key athletes were missing, offered the chance of international high-level competition to some smaller nations and younger athletes. Some of GB's less well-known sprinters got a real chance to shine.

I'm in NZ and there is plenty of coverage of the Games here, and people are talking about them.

seems overly negative to be down on the CG. Some people are dismissive of lower league football because it's not the Premier League. Same here, sure loads of the sporting superpowers are not included, but so what?

it's still competitive and we can all see and appreciate the effort the athletes are putting into it.

in a world full of shite, things like the CG should be supported, celebrated and enjoyed.

there are plenty forces out there trying to monetise the f out of sport, look at the recent world cup shenanigans and the enhanced games. CG is a lovely antidote to this, please don't wish it away.

I was entirely sceptical before the Games, but having attended the athletics on Friday evening, I was actually blown away with how great it was. Scotstoun looked surprisingly super and the many many volunteers were all jolly, helpful and excited to be there. It’s such a shame that excitement felt in the stadium wasn’t more widely accessible on TV. The standard is definitely lower than a Diamond League or an Olympics, but as PP said, it gives a greater opportunity for younger athletes to compete for their country. Josh Kerr has been a great ambassador for the Scotland games and talked about how his experience watching the commonwealth games in Glasgow in 2014 as a kid really inspired his athletics career and fair play to him, he gave back to the crowds. My athletics mad kids are now desperate to compete for their local club so these games may well have inspired our aporting champs of the future. I think it should continue but I also think it deserves proper media coverage. Watching it on Alba with the sound turned down wasn’t very inspiring…although I am glad they at least showed it.

I think it’s become trendy/woke to bash anything commonwealth. Yawn.