All in the name of sport: proof that Glasgow 2014 did leave a legacy after all

The captivating Commonwealth Games that consumed Glasgow in the summer of 2014 left many Scots newly enthused about sport, about fitness and about their nationality. It made people feel good about themselves.

This is not a fact. It is a strong hunch based on anecdotal evidence which may have been misleading and is probably now out of date. As much as we would like it to be a true and lasting result of a party that cost £575m to put on, how do we prove it? 

Critics of the notion of legacy have taken aim at east end regeneration. Concerns have been highlighted that the expected healthy living revolution has not materialised - although Herald Scotland countered this view last September. There are myriad areas of Glasgow 2014 legacy that need to be examined to get anywhere close to a definitive, all-encompassing conclusion that it was either a good or bad use of public money. 

Read more: Mel Young appointed chair of sportscotland 

Today we are looking solely at the sporting legacy, with the help of some statistical findings from sportscotland ahead of the agency's appointment of a new chair today. And these are statistics that make reassuring reading.

More schoolchildren are taking part in sport 

The graphs below are based on statistics taken from Sportscotland's Active Schools programme that show a big increase in participation.

In the 2014/15 academic year, more than 20,000 "deliverers" (session supervisors, 86 per cent of whom are volunteers), provided 333,000 "activity sessions" and there were more than 6.1 million participants in those sessions. 

Three years previously, the numbers of visits, sessions and deliverers were considerably lower (15,800, 238,500 and 4.5million) respectively. This adds up to respective increases of 35.5, 39.6 and 26.6 per cent. 

There are more, and better qualified, coaches 

As Doug Gillon outlined the day after Glasgow 2014 came into being, a commitment to raising coaching standards was sure to be a cornerstone of the legacy. 

The graph below requires minimal explanation. It shows that Scotland had, at the last count, more than 19,000 coaches qualified on the fourth tier (Level 1) of the UK Coaching Certificate structure, and nearly 5,000 on the third tier (Level 2). This dwarfs the respective figures from five years previously (4,808 and 764).

Our facilities are getting better and better 

The challenge, of course, is not just to build it but persuade people to come.

The coruscating criticism of the LTA by the Murray brothers and their Davis Cup-winning team-mates included Andy Murray observing that the UK's national training centre at Roehampton is, in his experience, not somewhere to go if you want to practice with elite players.

In Scotland, three major new training havens are in the pipeline: the National Performance Centre for Sport (see picture above, and artist's impression below), which will open at Heriot-Watt University on the outskirts of Edinburgh this summer, the revamped National Centre Inverclyde at Largs, which will come into being next spring (see artist's impression below), and the Regional Performance Centre in Dundee whose opening is inked for early 2018.

And the following centres of sporting excellence are already up and running:

• Aberdeen Sports Village
• The Emirates Arena, Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, and Tollcross Aquatics Centre (all built in Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games and confirmed as venues for the multi-sport European Championships in 2018)
• The Dick McTaggart Gymnastics Centre and Olympia swimming centre in Dundee
• Edinburgh's rebuilt Royal Commonwealth Pool
• The PEAK in Stirling, the home of elite Scottish curling 
• The Ravenscraig Regional Facility in Motherwell  

Without a large nine-figure public outlay, Glasgow 2014 would not have happened. Similarly, each of these facilities required an eight-figure outlay before a brick was laid. Building success in sport is an expensive business and the challenge, in terms of legacy, is to make sure the facilities are used and represent value for money. 

People are joining in by joining up 

The membership of bodies that govern Commonwealth Games sports went up by a collective 8 per cent between 2011/12 and 2014/15. 

This may be regarded as a modest increase, but the sports where growth is most evident were all popular and prominent during the Games 18 months ago.

Scottish Cycling's membership is up by 38 per cent, the same as Scottish Gymnastics, while Netball Scotland is up 67 per cent and Triathlon Scotland 49 per cent. 

Investment in community hubs is paying off, too

sportscotland's infographic below is self-explanatory. The agency has invested £1.5m per year since 2010/11 in pursuit of a target of 150 hubs across all 32 local authorities by 2016. With 10 months to go, 142 are up and running.   

sportscotland faces an uncertain future, of course. This morning the agency will unveil its next chair, who will succeed Louise Martin for a four-year term starting in June, and all public bodies are bracing themselves for budget reductions. 

As for Martin, whose influence has gone global now that she is at the helm of the Commonwealth Games Federation, she is adamant that Glasgow 2014 has been and will continue to be beneficial to the national sporting landscape.

She would say that, of course, having been one of the main instigators of Glasgow hosting the Games in the first place. So do you agree? Let us know in the comments section below.

“Even before Glasgow had won the race to be the host city for the Commonwealth Games, the organisations involved in the bid and Scottish sport were focused on not only delivering a magnificent event for the athletes and the spectators but on also securing a lasting legacy for the people of Scotland," says Ms Martin.

"There are a number of encouraging measurements which indicate that this partnership approach is delivering on that ambition.

“There has been a terrific increase in the number of United Kingdom Coaching Certificate Awards in Scotland in the past six years with Level 1 Coaches rising from under 5,000 to almost 20,000 and Level 2 coaches growing from fewer than 1,000 to 5,000, and they are working in the best facilities we have ever had.

“A number of centres of sporting excellence are already in place across Scotland, including Aberdeen Sports Village, the Emirates Arena, Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, and Tollcross Aquatics Centre in Glasgow, Dundee’s Dick McTaggart Gymnastics Centre and Olympia swimming centre, Edinburgh’s Royal Commonwealth Pool, The PEAK in Stirling, and the Ravenscraig Regional Facility in Motherwell.

“New world-class facilities are currently being constructed and will further improve Scotland’s sporting estate for performance and community users: Oriam, Scotland’s £33 million National Performance Centre for Sport will be completed in summer 2016 at Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University campus, and £11 million is being invested in the extensive refurbishment of sportscotland’s National Centre Inverclyde, which opens in spring 2017, while preparatory work is also underway on Dundee’s multi-sport £17 million Regional Performance Centre, which will open in early 2018.

“We are connecting those improved facilities and the growing number of coaches to the schools and clubs in our communities, which is helping to grow capacity in Scottish sport.

"Using Scottish Government and National Lottery investment, sportscotland is working with our partners in local authorities, sports, clubs, and elsewhere to deliver a world-class sporting system for all, and I believe the future for Scottish sport is looking very healthy in both a performance and community sense.”