Glasgow: A Great Sporting City

One of the World’s Top Five Sporting Cities:

Glasgow has continued its meteoric rise up the global rankings of the world's top sporting cities after it climbed three places to finish fifth in the world at the prestigious 2016 SportBusiness Ultimate Sport City Awards.

The city finished ahead of the likes of Los Angeles, Toyko, Sydney, Berlin and Paris. Glasgow was also named the number one city in the world in the Legacy category in reflection of its longstanding commitment to increasing participation and creating new sporting opportunities for citizens in the lead up to - and beyond - the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

And in a further award Glasgow was named Best Small City by population band beating Amsterdam, Calgary, Doha and Vancouver in the process cementing the city's position as a world leading sports city.

The SportBusiness Ultimate Sports Cities Awards, which are held every two years, are the internationally recognised and longest established rankings of the world's top sports hosts. Glasgow secured a ranking of eighth in the world in 2014, having moved up one place from ninth in 2012. The city made its debut in the 2010 rankings when it finished in 11th place.

The news comes during a golden era for sport in Glasgow. Building on the success of the best ever Commonwealth Games in 2014, Glasgow delivered in 2015 the FIG World Gymnastics Championships, the IPC Swimming World Championships and two historic Davis Cup ties.

In 2017 Glasgow will host the World Badminton Championships and will co-host the inaugural European Championships with the city of Berlin in 2018.

The 2018 European Championships will bring together the existing championships in athletics, aquatics, cycling, gymnastics, rowing and triathlon - along with a new team golf event - into one coordinated, thrilling multi-sport event from 1-12 August 2018.

Glasgow was a host city for eight football matches over five days as part of the London 2012 Olympic Football Tournament and has hosted a number of major one-off sporting events including the2002 UEFA Champions League Finalbetween Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen and the2007 UEFA Cup FinalbetweenSevilleand Espanyol, which together attracted almost 100,000 people.

Glasgow’s rise as one of the world's top sporting cities has been secured thanks to the city’s investment in world-class facilities, its international events programme, commitment to increasing participation and leaving a lasting legacy for future generations.

Glasgow’s Top Sporting Venues

Glasgow has a vast array of exceptional world-class sporting facilities, which are owned by Glasgow City Council. These include the Kelvin Hall, Scotstoun Sports Campus, Tollcross International Aquatics Centre and Toryglen Regional Football Centre. Both Scotstoun and Tollcross underwent extensive refurbishment ahead of Glasgow’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games in 2014 at a cost of £18 million (€23 million)and £17 million(€20 million)respectively.

The city is also home to Scotland's largest football stadia: Celtic Park (60,355 seats), Ibrox Stadium (50,947 seats) and Hampden Park (51,866 seats), which is Scotland's national football stadium.

Hampden Park holds the European record for attendance at a football match when 149,547 fans saw Scotland play England in 1937. This was before British stadia became all-seated!

Major Developments

  • The Kelvinhall: Phase one of Glasgow’s iconic Kelvin Hall has recently reopened following a major £35 million(€41 million) refurbishment. The project – which will bring about 50 per cent of the building back into use will include Scotland’s biggest health and fitness facilities – Glasgow Club at Kelvin Hall, a state-of-the-art health and fitness centre, which includes an 8 court multi-purpose sports hall, 4 court gymnastics hall, 3 dedicated group fitness studios and one of the largest fitness gyms in Scotland at over 1,000m2.
  • The Emirates Arena: The state-of-the-art £113 million (€132 million) Emirates Arena opened in Glasgow on 5thOctober 2012 as one of the most versatile and innovative purpose built structures of its type in Europe. The 10.5 hectare site was the showcase venue of Glasgow’s hosting of the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Known as the Commonwealth Arena during the 2014 Games, the venue hosted the badminton and track cycling events.

The indoor arenacan accommodate 6,500spectator seats when set up for sporting competitions and isthe national training centre for athletics, basketball, netball, track cycling and volleyball and includes Scotland’s first dedicated indoor Velodrome.

  • The Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome at the Emiratesprovides elite training and an international competition standard venue. It has a permanent capacity for 2,000 seated and 500 standing spectators viewing the 250-metre cycle track, which wasincreased to 4000 seats during Glasgow 2014 for the track cycling events.The Velodrome track was designed by internationally renowned Ralph Schuermann, the designer of the 2008 Olympic Games Velodrome in Beijing.

The design of the Velodrome’s track - and its accreditation by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) - is viewed as key to the success of the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome as an event arena.

  • The SSE Hydro: Since its opening in 2013 on the Scottish Exhibition + Conference Centre (SECC) campus in Glasgow, the SSE Hydro has boosted the city’s major event and conference credentials, ranking third, twice inPollstar’s Top 100 global arenas list. The list is compiled by the leading entertainment industry publication, based on arena attendance for concerts and special events.

In a further accolade, The SSE Hydro was also rated number one in the recently announced BILLBOARD Charts. The venue ranked first in the Top 10 Venues (10,000 – 15,000 capacity division) globally, coming in ahead of Hallenstadion in Zurich,

Mercedes-Benz Arena in Berlin and Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Australia. Venues are ranked by Billboard based on gross ticket sales.

ENDS

For more details contact:

Moira Dyer - Senior Manager Marketing Communications – International

GlasgowCity Marketing Bureau

T: +44(0) 141 566 0831. M: +44(0) 7960 895 173

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