Glasgow may have saved the Commonwealth Games, but it made a crucial mistake

August 2, 2026 — 5:00am

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

Glasgow: These Commonwealth Games have been like the friend who is told at the last minute the dinner party is going to be at their place. They try to argue that someone else should host, but eventually, begrudgingly, they agree.

“OK, I’ll have it, but we’re only having takeaway. And don’t bring your kids, we don’t have room. And I’m working tomorrow, so you can all leave early.”

This event was winnowed back so far – to just four venues and quotas for how many athletes that countries were allowed to bring – that in Glasgow you barely know the Games are on. The Games would have had more buzz in Australia than Scotland.

Unless you were at one of the venues – the pool, the athletics track, the velodrome or the hub that had the other remaining events – you would struggle to know the Games were happening. There is a smattering of billboards and signs, but you could easily miss them.

With so few events, no big team sports save for netball – hockey and rugby missed out – venues with small capacities and no road events that fans can watch for free, there are few tourists who have come for the Games. The result is that there is no hum of people filling the streets, pubs and restaurants.

Most critically, it’s not on free-to-air TV here. More people will have watched the Games in Australia than in Scotland. The BBC had the rights for the Games for 72 years, but were outbid for 2026 by pay TV station TNT.

If you don’t have pay TV, and most households don’t, you have to watch in a pub that has a........

© The Age