HIGH above Glasgow's stately George Square, in a near-empty office where the desks and chairs are still being laid out, the beginning of a sporting revolution is taking place.
Fewer than half-a-dozen people currently occupy the fifth floor office taken over this summer by the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games team. In six years' time, however, it will be the hub of a massive nationwide effort, involving tens of thousands
of volunteers, as Scotland plays host to the world's second largest multi-sport event.
The Commonwealth Games may seem an age away, but for the organisers here, time is short. The example of Beijing, where the stunning success of British athletes showed how sporting success can lift an entire nation, has refocused attention on the need to ensure Scots athletes are ready. And while in Glasgow, where concerns about the delivery of facilities are limited (most of the sporting arenas – Hampden, Ibrox and Parkhead – are already there), there is deep thought being given to the question that hangs over every Olympics or Commonwealth event; a two-week spectacular – yes. But what then?
The leader of the revolution is a determined former international swimmer called Louise Martin, the chair of Sportscotland, and the vice-chair of the 2014 organising committee; the woman credited, above any other, with having won the Games for Scotland.
It was she who led the bid team to success in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 10 months ago. Martin has spent 20 years attending these hyper-events. She saw six years ago how Manchester rebuilt its own east end through the Commonwealth Games. She has also been to the wastelands of Athens, where the glimmering Olympic stadiums of 2004 now slowly crumble in the sun.
It is Martin who is thinking now how to ensure Glasgow 2014 becomes not just a Games to remember, but an event which fundamentally transforms the country.
"If you see Wimbledon every year, two weeks after you see kids playing on the tennis courts – where are they a month after that? We can't afford to let that happen. This has to go beyond 2014. This has to be a rolling process so that the infrastructure is there to take it forward," she says.
The job is two-fold. First, there is the need to ensure that Scotland performs well on its home patch. Sportscotland is already drawing up a medal target list, to be published soon. Martin says that in order to get that success, more funding is needed. In Beijing, the teams that performed well – in cycling, rowing and sailing – were the ones who had the right backroom operations.
"One of the crucial things is making sure we have got the right coaches. We have got to increase the number of coaches who are able to coach at the elite level," she says.
"We have to find ways and means to bring in expertise to help that. Investment in that is required."
But this is only the tip of the iceberg. The country's sporting network has to be ready to both use the Games as a catalyst to boost sporting take-up, and to deal with the anticipated increase in demand. "There are very few Games that have left a legacy behind, because they haven't thought about it," she says. "What will happen in the future? We have said quite clearly these Games are not for 2014 and finish. We have to make sure it goes on."
This encompasses a lot: from the athletes' village in Glasgow's East End, which, it is hoped, will regenerate a run-down part of the city; to a fresh drive to ensure that facilities in schools across Scotland stay open in the evening so that local people can use them; to improving substandard sports fields and pavilions which, Martin admits, have not been as well kept as they should have been. And all of that costs money.
Sports bodies in Scotland cannot currently afford to both promote grassroots sport and at the same time boost elite performance, says Martin.
"If we were to take the money required to deliver the athletes for 2014, we would never be able to look after the rest – the other sports that are not in it and the grass roots community level."
For some the blame lies with SNP ministers who forced the merger of Scottish Institute of Sport – which trains Scotland's elite athletes – with Sportscotland. Now a cross-party campaign, led by this newspaper, is calling for a substantial sum of UK Lottery funds to be allocated to Scotland to pay for Glasgow's legacy.
Bodies such as Sportscotland have had their Lottery funding 'top-sliced' because of the huge Lottery funding required to pay for the London Olympics.
Martin is too experienced to get involved in a political blame game. She states simply that if Glasgow 2014 is to become a Games to remember – both for the performance of elite athletes and for the whole of the country – funding is required. "Whether it's Lottery funding or whatever, I don't care. As long as we are given the correct investment for what is required to deliver, I don't care where it comes from."
She adds: "This is the first time I would say that Great Britain has had back-to-back Games like this. To get the top two multi-sports games in the world – to get those together, how we harness that and make sure that it actually works is so, so important."
The full article contains 921 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
