Over the 2nd – 12th August, team Spectrum were hard at work delivering cleaning and waste management for the inaugural Glasgow 2018 European Championships at various venues across the city.
We are delighted to have been involved in an amazing 11 days of sport at The Championships. Across the entire event, we saw 52 nations compete, 8500 athletes and officials, an estimated TV audience of 1.03 billion, 12 host venues, and amazing sporting moments made as well as World Record’s broken, right here in Scotland!
Around 300 Spectrum team members were involved in helping to keep venues clean and enjoyable for everyone to enjoy. We are honoured to have helped keep Glasgow clean and presentable for residents, visitors, athletes and a huge international TV audience as all eyes were on the city for 11 days of sporting action.
We provided services for the Triathlon and Rowing events at Strathclyde Country Park, Track Cycling at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, BMX at the Glasgow BMX Centre in Knightswood Park, Synchronised Swimming at Scotstoun Sports Campus, Swimming at Tollcross International Swimming Centre, Mountain Bike at Cathkin Braes, and the Cycling Road Race in Glasgow City Centre.
Alongside our work at sporting venues, Glasgow 2018 also celebrated throughout the sporting programme with Festival 2018, where the city’s iconic George Square was transformed into an upbeat and bustling hub for The Championships. The crowds at George Square meant our team had to work efficiently and promptly to ensure standards were consistently maintained and Glasgow was rightfully staged as a world-class host throughout The Championships.
We were delighted to have not only been a part of successfully delivering the Championships, but also play a role in helping the community. At the Emirates Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, we called in a soup kitchen to uplift some of the leftover fruit and food so they could go to good use. Any spare food from Glasgow Green, Tollcross International Swimming Centre and other sites was also taken off-site and given to the homeless by our team too.
Spectrum are very familiar with working at large-scale events, and our experience at The Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games set us up for delivering yet another successful major sporting event in our home city. Many of the key team members who worked with us 4 years ago for Glasgow 2014 helped to lead teams at The Championships.
Now the Championships are over, the local community with continue to reap the benefits of the event. We had recruited a number of staff especially for the Championships, giving them key skills, training and experience which will serve them well in the future. Many of whom were previously unemployed, so we are delighted to have been able to provide an employment opportunity and valuable experience in the facilities management and events industry. We are also retaining part of the workforce recruited for the Championships and look forward to developing them and working with them on future events and contracts.
A big thanks to our amazing team at every venue, as well as our head office, who helped to keep The Championships clean and enjoyable for all involved!
You can find out more about our work at major sporting events here.