Venues will provide 'sport legacy'

Jan 27 2013

Creating world-class sports facilities throughout Scotland is key to providing a lasting legacy after the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, the national agency for sport has said.

The Emirates Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow as well as the £5 million refurbishment of the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh are examples of "tremendous" recent improvements, according to sportscotland.

It is hoped the investment will encourage more people to take up and stay involved in sport.

Mark Cowan, head of facilities at sportscotland, said: "We've now got venues in Scotland that people can be proud of, and should be recognised as being world-class. We have genuinely made a step-change in terms of what we've now got in Scotland, by way of major regional and national facilities.

"The emphasis and focus was on providing the athletes with the high quality of facilities they needed to train and compete in. We set out to create aspirational, inspirational, high-quality facilities and that's exactly what's been created."

Three separate funding streams - Sports Facilities Fund, CashBack for Communities, and the Legacy 2014 Active Places - have also been rolled out to help deliver at grassroots level.

Active Places was launched in October last year, with £10m available until 2015 for community-led projects. Around 100 inquiries have been dealt with by the team at sportscotland ahead of a February deadline for the first round of applications seeking grants of between £10,000 and £100,000.

Mr Cowan added: "It is vitally important that we are investing in Scotland's sporting infrastructure. Good sports facilities are an important hook for encouraging people into sport and ensuring they stay involved. Poor facilities we know has the opposite effect, they switch people off."

Another key element of Glasgow 2014's sporting legacy is the development of Community Sport Hubs across the country's 32 local authorities. More than 60 hubs are already in operation and there will be 150 by 2016, with at least 50% based in schools.

The 20th Commonwealth Games will be held in Glasgow from July 23 to August 3 2014.