Glasgow Commonwealth Games organisers hope for late surge in ticket gross sales | Commonwealth Games 2026

Commonwealth Games organisers will hope for a late surge in ticket gross sales as Glasgow prepares to stage the opening ceremony on Thursday evening, with seats nonetheless obtainable throughout plenty of occasions on the 4 competitors venues regardless of the considerably decreased scale.

The opening ceremony on the OVO Hydro nonetheless had grownup tickets obtainable on Wednesday, with costs starting from £45 to £95. The 13,000-capacity area will host reside music, the parade of countries and the arrival of all 74 Commonwealth batons. The six-time Olympic biking champion Sir Chris Hoy, who revealed in 2024 that he has stage-four most cancers, can even participate.

Glasgow 2026 is a really completely different proposition from town’s extensively praised 2014 Games. The opening ceremony 12 years in the past was at Celtic Park, the place greater than 40,000 folks watched Queen Elizabeth II formally declare the Games open. This yr’s occasion has been scaled again after the Australian state of Victoria withdrew as hosts over rising prices.

Only 500,000 tickets have been made obtainable for the Games, lower than half the 1.2 million for Glasgow 2014. Organisers have confronted questions over demand, with studies suggesting ticket gross sales have been slower than anticipated and public curiosity extra subdued than in the course of the earlier version held within the metropolis. Prices fluctuate significantly throughout the programme: grownup tickets for bowls and para bowls begin from £10, whereas Friday’s swimming session that includes the three-time Olympic gold medallist Adam Peaty carries a beginning value of £90.

This month, members of Scotland’s Tartan Army supporters’ membership had been provided free tickets for chosen periods, together with athletics, para powerlifting, netball and 3×3 basketball. Organisers stated the promotion was a gesture of because of followers who supported Scotland on the soccer World Cup.

Scotland will probably be led into the opening ceremony by the veteran garden bowler Alex Marshall and the double Commonwealth judo champion Sarah Adlington. Marshall, 59, is Scotland’s most embellished Commonwealth athlete with 5 gold medals, plus a silver, whereas Adlington gained gold on house soil in 2014 and at Birmingham 2022.

England’s flag bearers would be the garden bowler Sian Honnor and the swimmer Luke Greenbank. The latter gained relay gold in 2022, whereas the previous claimed Commonwealth titles in Glasgow and Birmingham.