General Over View of Sport in Glasgow

Since the City of Glasgow was named as the city to hosy the 2014 Commonwealth games the city has kicked in to action in making its poulation more active, in particular its kids. Schools have stepped up in trying to make youngsters more active and things such as active schools have began to make a big difference in and around Scotland.
From the 27th June-1st July, Lloyds TSB NAtional School Sports Week 2011 will take place. this week is the largest celebration of school sport and last year saw 14,000 schools take part with nearly 5 million young people taking part. This year it has promised to be bigger and better still with great incentives to get involved.

In 2011 the youngsters are invited to pledge to achieve a personal best in an Olympic or Paralympic sport, either individually, with their school or with a sports club.
Along with the week, Lloyd's TSB is giving secondary school taking part in the week the chance to carry the Olympic Flame through their community in the London 2012 Olympic relay as well as giving primary schools taking part in the week the opportunity to win tickets to the 2012 Olympics.
With such opportunities being presented to youngsters in the run up to the 2012 Olympic games there are many more prospects in the run up to the 2014 Commonwealth games for Scottish children. Already sporting talents will be getting spotted and training will be started in the hope of a new sporting start being ready to compete for the Scottish host nation in the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

Commonwealth Games

On Novermber 9th 2007 in Colombo, it was announced the Glasgow would play host to the 2014 Commonwealth Games. The 20th Commonwealth Games will run over 11 days from the 24th July to 3rd August 2014. Although the county previously hosted the games in 1970 and 1986 in Edinburgh, these games will be the largest multi-sport event ever held in Scotland. Over the pervious years, Glasgow and Scotland have hosted all 17 sports included in the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Glasgow was the first Scottish city in 2004 to consider hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games, and later in the year was announced as the Scottish candidate city over Edinburgh.
One of the major aspects considered when chosing the city to host the Commonwealth games was the fact that Glasgow already had 70 percent of the venues in place. Most of the venuues are located within 20 minutes of the athletes village in three main areas of the city, being the west end, south side and east end. The only two events to be held outwith the Greater Glasgow area will be the diving and full-bore shooting.
The opening ceremony will be held in Celtic park with the closing ceremony being held in hampden park which is also to host the athletics events.
In the west end of the city the Scottish Exhibition centre, internation broadcast centre, Clyde Auditorium, Scottish national Arena, Kelvingrove Park, Kelvin Hall and Scotson sports centre will all be venues.
In the East end of the city the a new national indoor arena is planned, Glasgow green, Tollcross Park Aqatics centre and Strathclyde County park will all be used.
Finally in the South side of the city, Hampden park and cathkin Braes are to be venues along with the Royal Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.
The official logo for the 2014 Commonwealth games was unveiled on 8th march 2010. Its rings represent the 20th Commonwealth games, across 17 sports, over 11 days, in 1 city.

Football in Glasgow

Glasgow is well known for football and in particular its two main teams, being Rangers and Celtic. The two teams both have stadiums in Glasgow and regularly play against each other in alterate stadiums and these meets are known as old firms.Also situated in Glasgow is the national stadium Hampden.

Celtic Park is situated in the parkhead area of Glasgow and the stadium is also known as parkhead and the fans also call it paradise. It is the second largest stadium in Scotland after Murrayfield stadium in Edinburgh. Also with its ability to hold ober 60,000 fans, it is the sixth largest stadium in the UK. The orignial Celitc park was built by volunteers in 1888, but it was decided in 1892 that a new stadium should be built across the road in a disused brickyeard just across the road. In 1994 the east and west facing stands were demolished. The stadium re-opened in 1995 with the new 27,00 seaters north stand and main stand  in place. The redevelopment of the stadium was finished in time for the start of the 1998/1999 season. The part has also been used for other important matches such as Scotland's first match against the faroe Islands. Celtic has looking in to increasing the capacity of the stadium by redeveloping the main stand to increase the seating to 8,000 but it was decided this would be too expensive to do.
Celtic park is still well used and in 2014 the park will hold the opening ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

The other main team n Glasgow is Glasgow Rangers. They play in the Ibrox stadium which is situated on the South side of the River Clyde. Ibrox stadium is one of the oldest stadiums in the Uk and also presently the tenth largest.
Rangers first moved to the Ibrox area in 1887 playing on a site to the east of the current Ibrox Stadium. In 1889, a decision was made to move to the current Ibrox and funds were raised by formalising the club as a limited company and issuing 12,000 one pound shares. The new stadium was formally opened on the 30 december with a 3-1 victory over hearts.
In 2006 after numerous changes to the stadium the capacity stood at 51,900 with many changes having being made to the four stands within the grounds of Ibrox. At present Rangers have plans to increase the size of the stadium and the capcity of the fans it can hold, but are yet to finalise any of these plans for the Stadium.
In 2008, Rangers were given approval by Glasgow city council to buy land around Ibrox and redevelop this land into hotels and retail outlets.
in the future Ibrox stadium is to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games Rugby events.

Hampden Park is the current national stadium for Scotland with its primary uses being stated as home of Queen's Park F.C, the Scottish National team and Scottish cup finals.
The orignal Hampden was built in 1903 although now-a-days there is no signs of this old stadium.
The new stadium houses the offices of the SPL, Scottish football leauge and tyhe scottish football associtation. As well as this Hampden has held well known events such as three Champions league finals, two cup winner's cup finals and a UEFA Cup final.
When Glasgow was officially selected as the host of the 2014 Commonwealth Games it was decided that Hampden would be the key stadium, osting the athletics events as well as the closing ceremonies.

Braehead Clan

In 2010 The Scottish professional ice hockey team, Braehead Clan, were formed. They currently play in the Braehead Areana and are one of three Scottish teams which play in the Elite Ice hockey leauge along with the Edinburgh Capitals and the Dundee Stars.
The Braehead Clan was formed to take place in the Elite leauge as the 9th team after two other teams pulling out of the leauge.The team was announced and several of the elite leauge's exsisting team owners as their managers.
The new team set about promoting the team through a group of women who were called the "Braehearts" and they wore special jumpers similar to the clan team home tops at events in community to try and gather support for the new team along with holding open days. The fact that the Arena was based in the Braehead shopping centre gave the team great opportunities to attract support.
After being formed early in 2010, Adam Calder was announced by the club as the first coach of the Braehead Clan and would take up the player/coach for the season.
Since the formation of the team in 2010, there has been many team changes, with some leaving and many new players being brought in.
The team now have an official website as well as being on twitter and facebook to continue its attempts to attract more support and aim to fill the Braehead arena during home games.

This is the official logo of the Braehead Clan which is growing in support as more continue to hear about the new Scottish team. Along with strips, there is also other merchandise available with the Clan logo on it ranging from pucks to car stickers. The club was successful in its first season, gaining silverwear and fans along the way.

The Glasgow Rocks

The Glasgow Rocks are the local basketball team for Glasgow and are based in the city where they play and train in the Kelvin Hall Sports Arena. The Glasgow Rocks were formerly known as the Scottish Rocks and also the Edinburgh Rocks and are the only team to be based outside of England. Currently they are one of the top teams in the top-tier leauge. At this present moment, Sterling Davis is the player-coach of the senior team.
The team was re-named during the summer of 2008 after it agreed a new long-term agreement with Glasgow City council and part of this agreement would be that the Rocks would be re-named as the Glasgow Rocks for the start of the 2009/2010 season.

The Team currently plays in the Kelvin Hall arena but previously their home arena has been known as the Meadowbank arena and the Braehead arena.

The Scottish Rockettes are the opfficial dance team of the Scottish Rocks and the UK's top pro-sports dance team. They are made up of twenty-one women all over the age of 18 who comes from all different backgrounds, ranging from dance to nursing.


The team have varying success within competitions and have some well known titles to their name. With the Commonweath Games on there way, its no doubt basketball will become more popular and soon we could see some up and coming youngsters staring for the Glasgow Rocks.

Gymnastics in Glasgow

Gymnastics is a growing sport in Scotland with more and more athletes competing at higher levels and achieving recognision. In the Commonwealth games, there are many gymnastics events ranging from volting to rhythmic routines.
An exciting gymnastics opportunity has been handed to Glasgow in the shape of hosting the UK's first ever artistic World Cup Gymnastics. For the past 14 years Glasgow has played host to the gymnastics Grand Prix which is a World Cup qualifier event, but never have the held the actual event.
Coming to Glasgow in 2011 and 2012 is this fantastic event in which is set to promote gymnastics and encourage more youngsters to take up the sport.
The event will take part on the 16th of April, less than 2 weeks away! This is a unique opportunity to catch a look at the expected medal contenders for the London 2012 Olympic games, when the top 8 ranked male and female athletes compete in this exciting event. It is an opportunity to see them in action both in floor routines and using appartaus.
Also it is a great chance to show home support to Daniel Purvis (top of the page) who is hoping to win gold at the 2012 Olympic games after his bronze medal success at the World Championships.
With tickets costing from just £3, it is set to be a family, fun filled day. It is flexible meaning you can easily buy tickets for the male performaces in the morning and the females in the afternoon.
The World Cup Gymnastics has teamed up with Euro hostels and Fraser Suites for great discounts on Glasgow accomidation during event.
Also more excitment for Glasgow in gymnastics with a bid being submitted to hold the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastic Championships. These would be held in the SECC, the same venue for the gymnastic competition in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.


  

Junior Great Scottish Run

Just one day before The Great Scottish Run in Glasgow, a junior  Great Scottish run takes place with the choice of two different distances. There is the 1.5k race or the more challenging 3k race both which are taking part on the 3rd September this year. Both races are a flat course which take part in the safe surroundings of the Glasgow Green. Both races are open to thoes between the ages of 9-17.
The launch of the Junior great scottish run was supported by Lee McConnell along with Gerry McCulloch and Sheelagh McLaren who showed face in Glasgow's George square to promote the junior run for 2011.
This race is extremely popular with young people from all over Scotland and with such cheap entry fees of just £3 after a 50% discount with a Glasgow young scot card, or Glasgow kidz card there is little stopping kids getting geared up and taking part in one of the best youth races of the year.
To attract young people to the race the organisers have made a facebook page which is easily found on facebook by looking up Bank of Scotland Junior Great Scottish Run.
Last year the run was a great success with over 1,600 youngsters taking part in the two races. This was only part of the weekend, as on the friday before this race, over 3,000 school children took part in the schools challenge. The children who were ages between 8 and 9 took part in the come and try sports challenges including football, rugby, hockey, athletics and tennis before completing a mini junior Great Scottish Run of 1km.This is also to happen this year in an attempt to attract more young children to sports with the upcoming Commonwealth Games approaching.
Getting the children into running the junior Great Scottish run will hopefully in future encourage them to continue taking part in such activites and perhaps lead to them becoming regular participators in the Great Scottish Run.