SCOTS have always been famed for our ability to host a party but the Scottish sports fan has never had it so good. The year 2014 saw both the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and Ryder Cup in Gleneagles come to town, generating millions for the Scottish economy before a star-studded BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards rounded things off at the SSE Hydro in December.

Living up to that wasn't easy, but 2015 had a pretty good stab at it. Two sell-out Davis Cup tennis ties at the Emirates Arena weren't a bad start, as an Andy and Jamie Murray-inspired Great Britain side picked up the trophy for the first time in 79 years. While they might not have garnered the same column inches, a combined total of five world and European Championships also took place in Scotland last year.

Into 2016 and the SSE Hydro is coming of age as a bespoke sporting venue for the biggest Scottish boxing shows, not to mention being packed to the rafters for the first of what is envisaged as an annual Andy Murray Live charity event. The Open was back at its Scottish rotation at Troon and the Davis Cup was back at the Emirates last month for a classic semi-final between Great Britain and Argentina.

Last weekend's European Judo Open is now into its fourth successive year, before the Scottish sporting fan is exposed to a veritable blitz late in the year. At the same time as the MOBO awards are in town, bonfire night weekend sees both the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome play host to the Cycling Track World Cup, with the European Curling Championships at Braehead to follow before the end of November.

There is a tendency to view 2014 as a high watermark for hosting sporting events in this country - to suggest that in a time of budgetary pressures Scotland now seems fated to host second tier championships in minority disciplines - but Paul Bush, the event director of Event Scotland, reckons nothing could be further from the truth.

The diary is already filling up for the next few years - including a multi-sport European Championships in 2018 which is shared between Glasgow and Berlin which Bush reckons could be bigger even than the Commonwealth Games - and now the brains trust at his organisation is already thinking laterally about how best to continue hosting world class events up here for beyond 2020. One idea gaining currency is a Ride Scotland event, to promote the health and social benefits of cycling along the lines of Ride London, while Bush also doesn't see why it shouldn't be viable to share a football World Cup bid shared between the home nations. If Qatar can get one, why can't we?

"I think 2014 was the springboard rather than the end of the journey," Bush told Herald Sport. "If you compare Scotland with many other countries, particularly the ones who are the same size and scale, there aren't many who have retained that momentum and actually grown a little bit. In 2015 we had five World and European Championships in Scotland. World gymnastics, world orienteering, European eventing in Pitlochry to name a few.

"If you think of the next three years what we have to look forward to is absolutely phenomenal," he added. "If you look at the European Championships, where there are six different European Championships in one week, you could argue that is bigger than the Commonwealth Games. Certainly the quality of the athletes will be more world class, because the Commonwealth Games tends to be very disparate. And the sports are the ones where Scots at Team GB perform with lots of success - athletics, rowing, swimming, gymnastics, golf, triathlon, cycling." World badminton championships and European club rugby finals are also scheduled to visit Scotland next year.

"Then you wind the clock forward to 2019," said Bush. "European Indoor Athletics is already secured for Glasgow. The Solheim Cup is already secured for Gleneagles. In 2020 the European football Championships come to Glasgow [three group stage matches and a knockout game].

"But the challenge, the next part of the jigsaw, is what is next," he added. "What is the next part of the jigsaw, between 2020 and 2030? We have got to think a bit more laterally now about the hosting of events, because they are expensive - there is no doubt about that.

"But the legacy of Glasgow is undeniable, we would not have had the judo last weekend if we hadn't built the Emirates Arena. And we wouldn't have had the Andy Murray Live event if we hadn't built the SSE Hydro. We have actually become a little bit complacent, and forgotten that a couple of years ago we didn't have the Emirates Arena, The Hydro or the Chris Hoy Velodrome. They've now become absolute givens in the whole infrastructure.

"Some things could come back. There is no reason why we shouldn't have the Ryder Cup, although obviously Paris and Rome have signed up for the next few editions. After the success of Gleneagles in 2014 that is a viable option. As for the Commonwealth Games I don't know. We obviously weren't successful with our Tour de France bid [a Grand Depart] but there's no reason why we couldn't look at that again in the future or a Ride Scotland event, that could attract 50 to 75,000 people over a two or three year period like Ride London does."

While Hampden will play its part in 2020, the days where the national stadium played host to Champions League and Uefa Cup finals as it did in 2002 and 2007 appear to have come and gone. Quite simply the stadium lacks the scale and executive hospitality facilities of the next generation of stadium builds. But sporting events don't have to be massive, global ones to add value to the Scottish sporting landscape. The Tiree Wave Classic, on s.ome of the best windsurfing waters known to man, is small but perfectly formed. When it comes to waves, wind and water, Scotland continues to be in a league of its own