Could Dundee Play A Role If The 2026 Commonwealth Games Come To Scotland?
Dundee could potentially play a role in hosting the 2026 Commonwealth Games if Scotland decides to step in as a potential host — here’s how!
With the news that Victoria withdrew hosting the 2026 Commonwealth Games, there has been speculation on how the event can continue — it is at a point now where the games are on a shoogly peg and at risk of being cancelled altogether.
So what has been the plan B option for the Commonwealth Games Federation? (CGF)
Well, because Victoria dropped out, this has triggered a second selection process — and well, it hasn’t sparked a lot of interest so far.
The former premier of Queensland, Peter Beattie, who was the chairman for the 2018 games in the Gold Coast, cited Birmingham or Glasgow as potential host cities.
Birmingham, however, has ruled out hosting the 2026 games after the city council revealed that they were not “games-ready” due to the infrastructure being converted from the games last year — and Wales has ruled out a bid too.
This leaves Scotland as one of few viable options left when it comes to hosting the 2026 games.
Can Scotland save the Commonwealth Games?
It would be huge task — a very huge task.
Scotland currently has no intention in staging a full-on games entirely hosted in the country like it had done in 1970, 1986 and 2014, however the First Minister, Humza Yousaf, has stated that he would look to see if Scotland could host on a joint ticket with another city or country in the Commonwealth.
This is a similar strategy to what was the case during the 2018 European Championships, when Glasgow co-hosted alongside Berlin.
The 2014 games in Glasgow were considered ‘the best ever’ by the organising chiefs at the CGF. And it was revealed today that Glasgow city council would look into discussing options in any way it can if it is feasible for Scotland to host.
The total budget for the Commonwealth Games in Scotland back in 2014 was £424.5 million but in 2015, it was revealed that the games took place under-budget by £37.2 million — and in turn, contributed more than £740 million to Scotland’s economy and supported thousands of jobs.
Scotland hosting part of the games can make sense to an extent, as the infrastructure is already in place and we’ve already hosted it before.
However, things are different this time round — 2014 is not 2026.
The Scottish government under Jack McConnell confirmed that Scotland would bid for the 2014 games — that was in 2005, a whole nine years before the games even took place in Glasgow.
This time, we’d see Scotland looking to bid for the event that would happen only three years from now, which if you think about it in sporting terms, is not a long time.
But if the Scottish government are looking to explore only hosting a fraction of the games, then the costings would be different and it could actually work.
A similar strategy to what happened in 2014 could take place, because not all of the events during the 2014 games were held in Glasgow, Edinburgh hosted the aquatics events for instance.
This sort of scenario could play out again if Scotland hosted in 2026 — and this is where Dundee could come in to help.
So what could Dundee’s role be?
During the 2022 games in Birmingham, a new Esports competition was launched as part of the games programme — the Commonwealth Esports Championships.
Scotland competed in the inaugural event under Esports Scotland and won silver in the women’s Rocket League event. Following the games, Esports Scotland moved their base to the Gardyne Campus at Dundee and Angus College.
Dundee could potentially play host to the 2026 Commonwealth Esports Championships which saw hundreds flock to the Birmingham ICC to watch countries compete.
Currently, there are plans to build a 4,000-seat Esports arena in the heart of the waterfront. If given the green light, it would cement Dundee’s title of being the ‘video games capital of Europe’
However — the venue might not be ready in time to host the event. It was hoped that the arena would open by 2025, however due to the Covid pandemic and other disruptions in the process, it might not be until 2027 or 2028 before the arena opens its doors.
But you’re probably thinking — well that’s it. We’ve got no other possible soultion.
Enter — the Caird Hall!
The Caird Hall is Dundee’s flagship music and entertainment venue and it has been for almost 100 years as it celebrates it’s centenary in October later this year.
The 2022 event in Birmingham was held at the Birmingham Indoor Convention Centre in the main auditorium (hall 1) which has a seating capacity of 1,500.
The Caird Hall has a larger capacity — with a seating capacity at 2,300 — so it very much has the room to host the competition.
Dundee hosting this event if Scotland takes charge of hosting a fraction of the games would be brilliant for the city. The city has started hosting Esports events, which all began in 2021 when the city hosted the Scottish Esports League LAN Finals and again in 2022.
And once the Esports arena is hopefully built, that could pave way for Dundee to potentially even go to host the newly-established Olympic Esports Week — effectively making Dundee an Olympic host city — which would be weird but amazing!
Again — this is only an idea — an ambitious one. But if Scotland does decide to hop in and save the Commonwealth Games, maybe organisers could look towards the City of Discovery for a helping hand.
