The Huddle: Do big sporting events leave a tangible legacy?

With the Scottish Government’s Summer of Sport initiative bookended by the World Cup and the Commonwealth Games, Holyrood asks: Do big sporting events leave a tangible legacy?

Andy Reed, director, Sports Think Tank

Drawing on our work around sports legacy, Glasgow 2014 demonstrated how difficult it is to translate major event momentum into sustained increases in participation. While the infrastructure and global visibility were delivered successfully, the evidence on long-term behavioural change remains mixed, particularly in communities facing structural barriers to access.

For Scotland’s Summer of Sport, the priority should be a more explicit policy framework linking events to participation outcomes. This means aligning investment with local delivery systems, addressing cost and access barriers, and embedding sport within wider public health and education strategies. Without this, inspiration alone will not shift entrenched activity levels.One clear legacy from Glasgow is Scotland’s proven capability to step in and host major events at pace. The policy challenge now is to move beyond delivery competence and ensure that event-led investment drives measurable, long-term participation gains across all communities.

Girish Ramchandani, Professor of Applied Sport Management at Sheffield Hallam University

Big sporting events like this summer’s Fifa World Cup and the Glasgow Commonwealth Games bring a heightened sense of enthusiasm and create a feel-good factor. Even in its scaled-down format, staging the 2026 Commonwealth Games strengthens Scotland’s international reputation as a major events destination. Glasgow and Scotland are set to experience an influx of tourists and benefit from opportunities for place marketing through media coverage of the Games. Team performance at the Fife World Cup and the Commonwealth Games will play a part in the extent to which social impacts such as an increase in national pride and inspiring sport participation in Scotland could occur. The longevity of such outcomes is difficult to predict. The ambition behind the Summer of Sport initiative is commendable – amongst other things success will be shaped by the quality of what is delivered and the experiences of the children and young people who are engaged. The holy grail remains getting more inactive people to become active, rather than getting active people to be more active.

Grant Jarvie, Chair of Sport at the University of Edinburgh

The Summer of Sport is a welcome time-limited injection of funding. It removes financial barriers for some for a short period; the involvement of football gives it considerable reach; it has inclusion requirements that include a contribution to failing to adequately fund para sport; and the swimming programme is genuinely longer term. It acknowledges the importance of event leverage. Concerns remain including a legacy dip risk once events and funding end, the perception of a partial response to a broken government funding pledge, and structural inequalities outcomes are not shifted. 

The political will to fund sport adequately should not be to event dependent. Scotland can learn a lot from Australia’s intentionally planned green and gold decade of sports events. Even if Scotland had the political sporting will of Norway or Australia, it has historically lacked the sustained financial commitment to match it. 

The minster responsible for sport is not in the cabinet. Scottish Sports Aid could help external affairs. Funding is not top sliced from other portfolios. France, Australia and Wales have shown that sport can simultaneously serve domestic goals and act as a tool of cultural diplomacy at relatively low additional cost. Scotland, with its diaspora, global sporting profile and World Cup moment, has every condition to do the same. The absence of any such strategy is the programme’s most significant missed opportunity. Scotland can do better. 

Marie Macklin, Founder and executive chair of the HALO urban regeneration company

Scotland’s Summer of Sport should be embraced as a chance to deliver a meaningful legacy on three fronts. Firstly, it should see a ramping up of efforts to get as many people as possible, at all ages, involved in sport as part of the drive to healthier living – Scotland’s health outcomes still, sadly, lag behind many other countries, and sport can be part of the answer to that. Secondly, it should cement investment in sporting infrastructure, from grassroots to elite level, and I’m glad to see initiatives like the Summer of Sport grant scheme in my home area of East Ayrshire. Bluntly, we can’t expect kids to take up sport or our professional athletes to thrive without good facilities. And last but not least, I hope the performance of our teams and athletes this summer can inspire future success for Scotland at the highest levels on the world stage.

Kimberley Guthrie, chief officer at Scotland’s Towns Partnership

Scotland’s Summer of Sport presents an opportunity to create a legacy beyond the events themselves. Major sporting initiatives and events such as the World Cup and Commonwealth Games inspire national pride and gather a collective feeling of excitement, but more importantly their greatest success is the lasting impact they have on people, communities and local economies. Active travel, accessible public spaces and strong community infrastructure are fundamental to healthy, liveable places. If this summer encourages people to walk, cycle, take part in local activities and enjoy the places around them and indeed explore new ones, that is a legacy worth investing in. This summer will generate a strong national pride, which I hope can be reflected at a local level too. Through our Scotland Loves Local initiative, we celebrate the people, places and businesses that give our communities their character. If we can channel some of the energy of this summer into supporting local places, its legacy will be far-reaching.

Alastair Marks, chief executive, Homeless World Cup

Major sporting events have the power to leave a legacy far beyond stadiums or results if they are used intentionally to create long-term social impact. For Scotland, the opportunity around this Summer of Sport is not simply about showcasing world-class events but about using sport as a platform for inclusion, wellbeing, connection and opportunity. At the Homeless World Cup Foundation, we have seen first-hand the impact sport can create. Independent research following the Glasgow 2016 Homeless World Cup found that 82 per cent of participants transitioned away from homelessness post-event, 46 per cent gained employment and over half of spectators at the tournament reported more positive attitudes towards homelessness. The event also generated more than £9.5m in social capital, with every £1 invested creating £8.62 in measurable social return. We hope this summer can galvanise communities across Scotland, whether by inspiring people to get active and try something new, or by helping build stronger, more connected communities in the places they live. 

Rachel Williams, Policy and public affairs manager, Women in Sport

After an incredible few years for women’s sport, this summer has the potential to build on that momentum and inspire a new generation of women and girls. The Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup, where Scotland’s women have already won their first match, will highlight women’s sport on the world stage, showing women and girls across the UK that they belong in sport too. Our research found that, following the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup, around two million girls would like to try rugby if given the chance. 

But that’s the key point: they need to be given the chance. Visibility alone is not enough. Our research shows that 1.3 million girls who once considered themselves sporty disengage from sport during their teenage years. To create lasting change, the excitement and investment around elite women’s sport must be matched by opportunities at grassroots level. That’s why it is encouraging to see the Scottish Government investing in opportunities for children and young people to get active this summer, giving more girls the chance to discover a sport they love and feel they belong in. The legacy won’t just be a successful summer of sport – it will be helping to build habits that last a lifetime.

Aileen Campbell, chief executive, Scottish Women’s Football

I recently attended an event for young people in Glasgow, with many from beyond Scotland. Language was sometimes a barrier, backgrounds unfamiliar and experiences different. Added to that was a shared unease following recent city protests.

We started talking about football and, suddenly, we had a common language that sparked humour, banter and joy. Sport, particularly football, has a unique power to soften division, restore connection and foster cohesion. I write this while basking in the joy of a World Cup win and watching Scotland supporters in Boston mixing effortlessly and winning hearts.
But these moments do not happen by accident. Sporting success depends on sustained investment in the people and places that make it possible – often volunteers and community organisations whose work delivers social benefits far beyond the pitch or park.
Just as football translated for those young people in Glasgow, and as the Tartan Army translate Scottish kindness and spirit, I want our Summer of Sport to translate into lasting value for everyone, in spring, autumn and winter too.

Maureen McGonigle, chief executive, Scottish Women in Sport

For women and girls, the Summer of Sport must be about joy – having fun with friends, making new connections, and feeling happy and healthy – but also about being visible and seeing themselves reflected in the celebration. When we get this right, we take real steps toward reducing isolation, improving mental wellbeing, and building healthier, more connected communities.

But a single summer is only a snapshot. Real change means putting long-term structures in place so that women and girls are included in every part of sport – from leadership and coaching to participation and decision making. Getting this balance right brings huge benefits and can help counter the rise in misogyny that so many are experiencing.

With dropout rates among young girls in sport still far too high, now is the moment to act. Let’s work collectively to change the game and make this a Summer of Sport that truly includes everyone.