Glasgow 2026 generated £233m - is it a blueprint for future games?

More than a million people attended the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow this summer, and 510 million sports fans watched from around the world, according to a new report.

The Glasgow 2026 impact evaluation also found that it generated £233m in economic activity across Scotland, with £158.6m of that in the host city itself.

Glasgow stepped in to host a scaled-down version of the event, which featured fewer sports and athletes, after the Australian state of Victoria pulled out due to rising costs in 2024.

Organisers promised it would cost the taxpayer nothing and the figures in the new report show they achieved this.

Some 2,749 athletes across the 74 Commonwealth nations took part in 10 sports and six para-sports.

Over 11 days in July and August, six world records and 152 Commonwealth Games records were set.

The overall cost of the games was less than £160m, according to the report.

The majority of this money, about £100m, was funded privately by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), with the remainder coming from a range of commercial revenues such as ticket sales, broadcast rights, commercial sponsorship and merchandise.

And it found that community activity linked to the games reached all of Scotland's local authorities.

The games also supported 2,400 full-time equivalent years of employment, with 82 students securing games-time roles.

Phil Batty, chief executive of Glasgow 2026, told the BBC Radio Scotland Breakfast: "Glasgow has demonstrated that there is a template for designing an event differently.

"I think what is really unique here is that we have used the assets of the place. The amazing venues, the skilled workforce, the communities that must came alive through the course of the 11 days. That's the key here.

"So yes, it has been done for less than £160m but there's so many benefits for that."

A report into the 2014 Commonwealth Games, held in Glasgow 12 years earlier, found that version of the event cost a considerably higher £543m.

The Scottish government and Glasgow City Council provided £425m towards the bill, while the rest came from ticket sales, sponsorship and other commercial sources.

The report found this year's event cost 85% less to stage than the average of the previous three Games.

The 2014 games featured nearly 5,000 athletes who competed in more than 17 sports.

Before the 2026 Games, organisers said 500,000 tickets had been made available for sale across the programme, compared with 1.2m for Glasgow 2014.

Glasgow 2026 was never going to have the same look or feel of Glasgow 2014 - it was never meant to.

This was a stopgap Games - an event that was designed to provide life support to an organisation fighting for survival and relevancy.

This impact report makes a compelling case that it was mission accomplished but questions still remain from a local and global perspective.

In terms of cold hard cash, Glasgow 2026 promised it would cost the taxpayer nothing and the figures show they achieved this.

It's always more difficult to properly quantify the financial impact for the wider economy.

Economic activity isn't the same as economic profit and headline figures often reflect spending rather than long term financial gain.

Local legacy is also something that can be difficult to determine. Glasgow 2014 left bricks and mortar in the form of new venues and housing.

Glasgow 2026 can only leave a hope that the city can continue to attract global sporting events.

What the event has generated is a blueprint for what these Games might look like if the Commonwealth Games is to have a future.

It's now up to the cities of the future to decide if they actually adopt it.