All you need to know about Glasgow 2026 as tickets go on sale

The countdown is firmly on for the Commonwealth Games coming to Glasgow in 2026.

After a troubled time when the future of the event seemed in doubt, attention will turn to Scotland next July.

Tickets are now on general sale, with all the venues and sports confirmed.

Here is BBC Scotland's guide to the full event.

The Games will be held in Glasgow.

It's the second time the city has hosted the competition, having welcomed athletes and fans back in 2014.

The city stepped in at a turbulent time when the future of the Games appeared in question - with the Australian city of Victoria pulled out of hosting, citing costs.

After months of wrangling, Glasgow was announced as the new hosts of the Games - in a scaled-down version - in September 2024.

Scotland had also held the 1970 and 1986 Games, both of which took place in Edinburgh.

The Games will run from 23 July until 2 August 2026.

It will kick off with an opening ceremony on 23 July, at a venue still to be determined.

The following day will see the sporting action begin, with basketball, bowling and swimming among the first competitions to get under way.

The first medal will be awarded in para-powerlifting.

The Games will conclude on 2 August, with medals being awarded in the likes of netball and cycling, before a closing ceremony.

The 2026 Games will be the 23rd edition of the contest, which was first held in 1930.

There will be 10 sports included in this year's Games - a drop from 17 in the 2014 edition.

This is a reflection of the more cost-effective approach being taken, with less sports meaning financial savings.

The 10 sports that made the cut are

• Athletics and para-athletics (track and field only)
• Swimming and para-swimming
• Artistic gymnastics
• Track cycling and para-track cycling
• Netball
• Weightlifting and para-powerlifting
• Boxing
• Judo
• Bowls and para-bowls
• 3x3 basketball and 3x3 wheelchair basketball

There was disappointment for the sports that missed out, however.

These included hockey - despite Glasgow having a National Hockey Centre - and all racquet sports.

Four venues will host the Games.

• Tollcross International Swimming Centre will host swimming and para-swimming.
• Scotstoun Stadium will host athletics and para-athletics.
• The Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome and Arena will host track cycling and para-track cycling.
• The Scottish Event Campus will host the remaining sports, spread across various buildings.
• The city's biggest music venue, the OVO Hydro, will swap gigs for netball.
• The SEC Armadillo concert hall will welcome weightlifting and powerlifting
• 3x3 basketball and 3x3 wheelchair Bbasketball, bowls and para-bowls, boxing and judo will all go ahead at the SEC Centre.

The biggest change from the 2014 event is that athletics - traditionally the biggest draw of the Games - will be held in the much smaller Scotstoun Stadium, as compared to Hampden Park and its capacity of nearly 52,000.

Scotstoun, by contrast, is expected to hold about 11,000 people - even with extra seating in place. Unsurprisingly, the athletics events are likely to be the hottest ticket during the overall competition.

Yes. Both opening and closing ceremonies are slated to take place during Glasgow 2026.

However, details are scarce on what they will involve, and where they will actually take place.

Organisers say ticket details - and presumably the venues themselves - will be announced in the coming months.

The 2014 opening ceremoney at Celtic Park featured dancing Tunnock's tea cakes, Rod Stewart and Susan Boyle belting out tunes and unintended comedy when Prince Imran, the Commonwealth Games Federation president, struggled to open the Queen's baton to hand to her.

Speaking of the baton, the King's baton relay is already well under way - Sir Chris Hoy was the first runner, taking it in Port of Spain, in Trinidad and Tobago last March.

It will weave throughout the world before reaching Glasgow for the start of the Games.

The prices vary - considerably.

Organisers have stressed that tickets start at £17 for non-medal sessions and £26 for medal events.

However those are the cheapest categories for prices, and the cost can run into three figures for the most popular sports, like athletics and cycling.

This prompted a number of complaints when the briefs first went on sale, as numerous Glaswegians contacted BBC Scotland News to say pricing was too high.

This is partly due to simple demand - Scotstoun is a relatively small venue and athletics events are a big draw. Therefore the cheap tickets are likely to be snapped up quickly, with the pricier tickets the only ones left.

Tickets for sports with more sessions - such as netball - tend to be priced cheaper and are more easily available.

Organisers told BBC Scotland News there has been "incredible enthusiasm" and "strong demand" during three ticket pre-sales.

She said: "It's clear there's a huge amount of passion and excitement about the Games returning to Glasgow next summer."

Tickets are available via the Games website.

215 gold medals will be handed out during the Games.

Although scaled back, the largest ever swimming, cycling and 3x3 basketball programmes ever will form part of the Games.

There will also be more Para-sport events than in any other Games.

As for the medals themselves, we don't yet know the design of them -in 2014, they were only revealed in April of that year.

There will be 74 nations competing - that is an increase of two on the 2022 number, with Gabon and Togo joining the party.

Each country will have varying sizes of delegations. At Birmingham in 2022 this ranged from England with 438 athletes to Montserrat with just five participants. Scotland sent 254 representatives that year.

Those numbers will be down considerably in Glasgow due to far less sports being on offer.

Athletes taking part have not been confirmed yet. However the likes of runner Jake Wightman - a World Championship silver medallist - and English Olympic gold medallist Adam Peaty have stated their intentions to be there.

One big name who won't be there is cyclist Jack Carlin. He announced his retirement from the sport in October, weeks after saying he was looking forward to 2026.

At the moment there is not a TV deal in place for the Games.

Talks between the hosts and a number of broadcasters have been ongoing for some time but no agreement has yet been reached for live coverage.

The BBC has been the principal broadcaster of the Games since TV coverage began in 1954.

Some sources within the corporation told BBC Scotland there was a waning appetite for continuing its association with the event.

An agreement to broadcast Glasgow 2014 had been secured three years before it started.

The event was considered a huge success - organisers hailed it as "the standout Games in the history of the movement".

Scotland finished fourth overall in the medal table with a record haul of 19 golds and a best-ever tally of 53 medals.

England topped the table for the first time in 28 years, finishing ahead of Australia and Canada.

Usain Bolt anchored Jamaica to 4x100m relay gold and partied with the crowd, Chad Le Clos stormed to a record equalling seven medals and Nicola Adams took the first ever gold medal in women's boxing.

On the homegrown front the triumphs came often, from swimmer Ross Murdoch snatching 200m breaststroke gold to postman Charlie Flynn taking a memorable lightweight boxing gold.

However it was not not just medals and sporting success that led to acclaim for the event.

The events were well attended and were blessed with mostly sunny and warm weather. A host of other events, such as fanzones and free concerts, took place during the Games and there was a party atmosphere throughout the city.

One of the reasons the Scottish government was cautious about hosting 2026 was concerns over comparisons to the success of 2014.

Yes, organisers are on the hunt for volunteers.

Thousands are expected to take part in the event, and applications are already open.

Traditionally, the minimum age for Games volunteers has been 18, but Glasgow has cut that to 16 - the same as when it last hosted the event.

Volunteer roles will include everything from welcoming and guiding spectators and accredited attendees, to assisting sporting delegations and accompanying athletes to competition venues and media operations.

The popular thistle Clyde has retired from mascoting duties.

That has meant a new figurehead for the Games has been announced - a unicorn named Finnie who boasts a traffic cone for a horn.

The character made her first official appearance at the city's famous Finnieston Crane at dawn to mark 365 days until the start of the games.

She was designed with the help of school children from throughout Glasgow.

The Australian state of Victoria was appointed host in 2022, after organisers struggled to find volunteers for a location.

However a year later it dropped out - with premier Daniel Andrew saying the projected cost had tripled and become "well and truly too much" for the state to bear.

Other countries such as Malaysia and Singapore were then mooted as replacements, but declined to show interest.

That led Glasgow to step in, after the Scottish government struck a deal with Australian authorities regarding extra funding.

After Victoria pulled out, the future of the Games in both 2026 and beyond was murky.

Durban previously abandoned plans to host the 2022 edition, forcing Birmingham to step in, and the sheer cost of the event - at a time when many countries are squeezed financially - meant fewer and fewer countries were interested.

The hope is Glasgow 2026's scaled back programme might offer a blueprint for the future - with less sports and venues making it more affordable for other countries to bid.

Early indications seem promising - the city of Ahmedabad in the west of India has been confirmed to host the centenary Commonwealth Games in 2030, and other countries like Nigeria also bid on the event.

Organisers will be optimistic the future of the Games can be secured for the long-term.