Glasgow 2026 ‘will not be a pound shop Commonwealth Games’

The Glasgow Commonwealth Games will not be a “pound shop” event, ministers have insisted, despite admitting it could be scaled back further if costs spiral.

Both the UK and Scottish governments insisted that no public money would be spent on the 2026 spectacle, which has a programme of only 10 sports with hockey, rugby and badminton among those being scrapped.

Organisers have agreed to the reduced programme as part of desperate attempts to save the event, which had been thrown into turmoil after the Australian state of Victoria pulled out, saying it could no longer afford to stage it.

Glasgow has come to the rescue, but is expected to deliver the Games with a budget of around £100 million in compensation paid out by Victoria, with a further £24 million set aside for contingencies.

However, a series of sports federations and athletes expressed dismay that their events had been scrapped, under the “leaner” model which organisers claimed would remain in place for future events to ensure sustainability.

In contrast, the 2014 Games in Glasgow cost around £575 million, around £730 million today accounting for inflation, while the 2022 Games in Birmingham cost £778 million – £858 million in today’s money.

John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, said that if costs overran more events could be cut to ensure the event remained within budget, despite this being denied only minutes earlier by Jon Doig, the chief executive of Commonwealth Games Scotland.

“We managed to negotiate a substantial investment from the Commonwealth Games Federation of about £100 million, a contingency of about £24 million, which will be drawn on should that be necessary,” he said.

“Also, a commitment that if that is not sufficient, then the Games programme has got to be reduced so that there is no call on the public purse.”

Both Mr Swinney and Ian Murray, the Scottish Secretary, denied that the Glasgow games would be a “pound shop event”.

However, Mr Murray said that there “won’t be a penny of public money” provided to support it, though the UK Government has put up a further £2.3 million in contingency funding for security costs.

The event is being held across just four venues between July 23 and August 2, 2026, with track athletics to be held at Scotstoun Stadium, home to the Glasgow Warriors rugby team.

With temporary additional stands, the venue is expected to hold just 11,000 fans, around a quarter of the capacity at Hampden Park, the flagship venue a decade ago.

Mr Swinney also said he backed the idea of the event being known as the ‘Sir Chris Hoy Games’, after the cycling legend revealed at the weekend that his cancer diagnosis was terminal.

Hockey was the biggest omission from the programme despite a £5 million national hockey centre being built for the last Glasgow Games.

“I am clearly very passionate about the sport and find today’s news extremely disappointing,” Sam Quek, who won a silver medal for England in hockey in Glasgow, told The Telegraph.

“Hockey is the third most popular sport in the world. The excuse of cost being the issue is not good enough.

“Having seen the reaction among fellow team-mates, other elite players and fans, it is evident that by removing hockey from the Commonwealth Games, they are missing a massive opportunity to reach so many people.”

Kirsty Gilmour, Scotland’s top badminton player who won a silver medal in 2014, said the decision to exclude her sport was “painful”.

“It’s a fairly significant blow to be honest,” she said. “Our footprint is quite large but I was hoping our global attraction was enough to warrant [inclusion].

“I’ve had four Commonwealth Games, I’ll be fine, but for the younger players this would have been a major milestone.”

The World Squash Federation said it was “deeply disappointed” that its sport had been removed, before its debut at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, in India, high-profile sporting figures called on the nation to boycott the games, after several of its most popular events were cut.

At the last games in Birmingham, there were 19 sports contested, though organisers admitted that previous versions had been too large. In 2026, athletes will be put up in hotel rooms, rather than a bespoke athletes’ village, to save money.

There is still no host for the 2030 games, after Alberta in Canada, seen as the only serious bidder, pulled out last year due to the expected costs.

However, Katie Sadleir, the chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation, revealed that “two to three” countries had already expressed an interest in holding 2030 if they could repeat the scaled-down model.

“We needed to create a right-sized games,” she said. “Whilst the games in the UK and Australia have been fantastic, they have been out of the size and reach of what the rest of the Commonwealth could host.

“There was always a plan to look at a refreshed Games model to take it forward, and it might be quite different. Scotland has provided amazing leadership to help us reset and reframe the Games.

“They need to be sized at a scale that is affordable and sustainable. This is the first of what the Games of the future will look like.”