Doug Gillon's article in today's Herald lines up with the aims if the recently formed Hawks Trust
this Wednesday sees Hawks continue with it's community programme in Victoria Park with a Primary Schools session



Games organisers team up to maximise benefits of hosting
Published on 25 May 2010


Doug Gillon

The leaders of Glasgow 2014 and London 2012 last night signed an unprecedented agreement to collaborate and maximise the benefits of the cities hosting the Commonwealth and Olympic Games.

Lord Coe, chairman of the London organising committee, and John Scott, chief executive of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games organisers, put their signatures to a memorandum of understanding at Scotstoun as they looked down on the track hosting Glasgow schools athletics championships.

Former double Olympic 1500m champion Coe declined a TV invitation to be interviewed on the track, pointing out that this would delay athletes who had already warmed up for their events.

It seemed to underline the former Olympic champion’s promise to the Olympic movement to give the Games back to young people.

Both signatories denied the occasion was a “fluffy feel-good exercise in public relations”, saying that it would deliver numerous tangible benefits, with Glasgow appearing to gain the better of the deal.

London will have access to volunteers whom they will train for Olympic football matches at Hampden, which will be a first step towards securing venue-savvy volunteers for Glasgow at the stadium that will host the Commonwealth athletics programme. The notion is to prevent Glasgow re-inventing the wheel, when London has done so much already, and to further mutual legacy aims.

“This paves the way for both London 2012 and Glasgow 2014 to enjoy the greatest possible success,” said Coe, “and it furthers a broader legacy aim for the UK.”

Benefits include Glasgow being given introductions to London’s sponsors as they try to raise £80 million, the sharing of assets, ticketing and security information, and the chance for Glasgow to purchase fit-for-Games-use equipment at an economic price. London must dispose of tens of millions of pounds worth of equipment post-2012, which Glasgow would otherwise have to buy new.

Only in Canada (Montreal 1976, and Edmonton 1978) have Olympic and Commonwealth Games been similarly juxtaposed. However, geography and the cultural divide between English and French-speaking peoples negated that opportunity. “We’d be mad not to grab this chance,” said Scott. “The way London is trying to deliver the Olympics is an exemplar.

“It’s important to remember that we have a large number of sports in common and 71 Commonwealth Games associations of which 54 are national Olympic committees.

“They’ll be in London for the Olympics, and Glasgow for the Commonwealths. There’s a massive overlap.”

Coe today heads for Stornoway, but denied he was on a PR charm offensive. “I could detail any number of projects I have visited, from Aviemore to the Borders, Aberdeen across the Central Belt.

“I think it’s import to take the message as far and wide as I can. There really isn’t a part of Scotland I haven’t been to, witnessing fantastic projects or thinking how they can be applicable to young people. I will go everywhere until we have delivered this and nailed the legacy.”

Coe was piped into the signing ceremony at Scotstoun by pupils of Calderglen High School, who will be involved in the Delhi Commonwealth Games this October.

He ridiculed a report that last week claimed there was no proof that major multi-sport Games conferred economic or health benefits. “It was an extraordinary thing to say, particularly when it was not sourced through sport, and ignored sport sources,” said Coe.

“You might argue that Athens did not nail the sporting legacy, but when you have lost virtually every diesel-belching bus, and you had high-speed rail links from a new airport into a city centre, a tram and metro system and new roads that weren’t clogged up, people sitting for hours with engines running, you ended up with a city where respiratory illness has been dramatically reduced in recent years. That is a health outcome.

“In Seoul, the Paralympics, within a few years, impacted dramatically on disability discrimination. That wouldn’t have happened without the Paralympics.

“The Olympics always give a peg for people to promote theories which often don’t stand up to scrutiny.”

This article was originally posted on 25-May-2010, 07:45 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 25-May-2010, 07:49.