Budget-busting Commonwealth Games will cost half a billion

Published on Friday 21 May 2010 23:15

THE budget for bringing the Commonwealth Games to Glasgow in four years' time will now exceed half a billion pounds, organisers have admitted.

A revised balance sheet has put the final total for Glasgow 2014 at more than 523m, more than 150m over the original bid estimate.

The new figure, which represents the latest in a series of cost increases, was put down to inflation forecasts in the years leading up to the event.

Only six months ago, officials confirmed the budget had risen by 81m to 454m as a result of rising broadcasting and legislative costs. Yesterday's figure adds a further 69m to the total.

Organisers of Glasgow 2014 insisted yesterday that the project is still within budget and on-track to create a successful Games.

John Scott, chief executive of Glasgow 2014, said: "The Glasgow 2014 budget remains at 454m at 2007 prices as announced last November at the budget review.

"As part of the expected follow-up of that review, we have now calculated the projected inflation for each year up to 2014-15. The project remains on-budget and on-track to deliver an outstanding Games."

Under the revised budget, the overall operations costs now stand at 193m, with staffing costs in the region of 72m. The Games will also spend 50m on communications, and 17m on marketing and sponsorship.

The Scottish Government is contributing 344m to Glasgow 2014 with the remainder coming from Glasgow City Council (80m) and commercial income raised by the organising committee (100m).

Shona Robison, minister for public health and sport, said: "The impact of inflation over the next five years does not change the Games budget nor the determination of all those involved to work within that budget."

Meanwhile, new research assessing the impact of hosting major sporting events on cities has found little evidence that they bring health and socio-economic benefits to the local population.

Hosting such events does not automatically produce a positive effect on communities and the justification for the huge cost of staging the events is unclear,

the research published on the British Medical Journal website says.

"Benefits from future events, such as the 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in London or the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, cannot be expected to occur automatically," the study warned.

"There is a lack of evidence on the impacts of major multi-sport events on the host population, and it is unclear how the costs can be justified in terms of host population benefits."

Glasgow beat the Nigerian capital Abuja to host the competition, which will be held over 11 days beginning on 23 July, 2014.

Thousands of athletes and officials will stay in an athletes' village in the east end of the city where work has begun on a new national indoor sports arena and velodrome.