Michael Kelly: Glasgow must take a punt on sporting award

GLASGOW'S reputation received a real boost this week. It has been ranked at number 11 in the 2010 world league of ultimate sports cities, according to new research compiled by Sport– Business, a leading magazine for the business of sport. Glasgow was also named the overall winner in the marketing category.

This is an important recognition for the city. The criteria for ranking included the number of annual sports events held, major events held or hosting rights secured between 2006 and 2014; numbers of federations hosted; facilities/venues, transport, accommodation, government support, security, legacy, public sports interest and quality of life.

It is tough to meet these detailed demands over such a range. When the competition included Melbourne, London, Singapore and Moscow, it was not clear that Glasgow would be marked down as favourite.

This city's pitch included not just the Commonwealth Games in 2014, but international athletics, snooker, badminton, track cycling and the UK's biggest women-only 10km road race and our share of the 2012 Olympic Games football matches.

When you study what the city has to offer, it is obvious that the marketers did have the raw material with which to work.

Many of the cities Glasgow had to beat to win the marketing award were lesser-known sporting venues such as Lausanne, Valencia and Monte Carlo. This is significant because it was exactly that size of city that had been highlighted as being likely to present the most serious threat to Glasgow meeting its visitor targets.

Currently, the city attracts over three million visitors per annum, who generate at least 700 million and support 30,000 jobs. The ambitious target is that by 2016 this will have grown by a further one million visitors generating over 1 billion in revenue and creating an extra 9,000 jobs.

This will be done, not by taking on the Sydneys or the Beijings , but by staying ahead of cities of a similar size to Glasgow who want a piece of this action and who are prepared to throw bigger budgets at it.

Glasgow's success is further evidence that the city's plans and commitment to transform itself from a wreck of a post-industrial slum to a diverse, modern economy is still on course. It has been a long haul – nearly 30 years. And the transformation is in no sense complete. There is still too much unemployment, urban deprivation and child poverty for anyone who loves Glasgow to feel complacent.

But it is encouraging to receive, from time to time, external endorsement that policymakers are making the correct decisions. Glasgow has had enough slaps in the face this year for a wee pat on the back to be doubly welcome.

But this international attention puts even more pressure on those responsible for the Commonwealth Games. Unless these run like clockwork, the good work will all be undone. Fortunately, speaking to the key people involved – councillors and officials – gives great confidence that things are running to plan.

In particular, the question of legacy, the Achilles' heel of many grand sporting events, seems to have been properly thought through.

For a start, Glasgow did not need to build a vast number of facilities. The two major new ones are the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome and the refurbished and expanded Scotstoun Leisure Centre. It has been decided that the most valuable legacy will be for Glasgow to have a fitter and healthier population. It will need all its facilities to achieve that.

As for the other physical assets, there are detailed plans to convert the athletes' village into 10,000 new homes to accommodate the planned influx to the east end. There is also provision for new business space so that they will have work to go to.

Skilled labour, even now, poses a problem to Glasgow achieving its visitor goals. That is why much of the legacy thinking centres around organising soft-skill training now well before, not as an afterthought to, the event. "Forward thinking legacy" is not something that many cities have done and that is why a lot of them have not reaped the rewards expected of hosting a major sports event.

Weakness in transport is the other key threat to Glasgow's tourist economy. Lack of direct air services, failure to deliver the West Coast high speed rail line and the aborting of the promised airport rail link are challenges Glasgow cannot overcome on its own, but where political succour will come from in the existing economic climate is hard to fathom.

But it is too easy to find oneself wandering on to the downside. What is most pleasing about this international recognition of Glasgow's marketing excellence is that it is has been achieved thanks to the efforts of Culture and Sport Glasgow and the City Marketing Bureau – two of the arms-length bodies set up by councillors to run the city more efficiently.

It gives the lie to those who used the Steven Purcell scandal to trash the reputation of the entire city council and who condemned the whole strategy of devolving power to independent bodies as merely a way of boosting councillors' earnings.

Rather, it demonstrates that the city is staffed with competent professionals who can compete on the world stage and that the organisational concept is basically sound. With the departure of former council leader Purcell, the city now has to re-establish leadership of that vast team.

The opportunity is there on Monday when the Labour group selects a new leader. The favourites Gordon Matheson and Paul Rooney offer different philosophies. Rooney, who prospered under Purcell, will be inclined to continue the centralist control that has characterised the last era. Matheson is thought to want to hand more power back to the group as a whole. Both are well qualified and competent.

Whoever wins must be conscious that critics will not be taking their eyes off George Square for a considerable time. He must re-instil in citizens and media alike the confidence that outsiders seem willing to place in Glasgow.