Can Gleneagles host effectively a European Championship?


By: February 22, 2017


Gleneagles has today been unveiled as an Official Supporter of the Glasgow 2018 European Championships (between 2nd and 12th August 2018), a multi-sport event.

To be staged every four years, the European Championships will combine the existing European Championships of Athletics, Aquatics, Cycling, Gymnastics, Rowing and Triathlon. The 1st edition will be held in 2018 in a unique sporting partnership between Host Cities Glasgow and Berlin.

The European Golf Team Championships is the only new event being staged as part of Glasgow 2018 and will take place at the famous Jack Nicklaus-designed Gleneagles PGA Centenary Course – the same venue that hosted Europe’s memorable victory over the USA in the 2014 Ryder Cup.

The organisers are promising that it will be a game-changing moment for golf. This will be the 1st time when Europe’s elite men and women set to compete together. The event is supported by the European Tour and Ladies European Tour. It will include a men’s and women’s event along with a ground-breaking mixed competition.

There will be 3 European Team Golf Championships: Men’s Team Championship, Women’s Team Championship and Mixed Team Championship.

The Men’s and Women’s Team Championships are Match Play format, played over four days, while the Mixed Event will be played with National Teams of 4 players (2 men and 2 women) on Saturday 11th August 2018. The format is mixed foursome stroke play, with each team being made of two mixed foursome pairings.

As part of the inaugural European Championships in 2018 around 3,000 athletes will visit Scotland for six events (Aquatics, Cycling, Golf, Gymnastics, Rowing and Triathlon) while a further 1,500 athletes will compete in Berlin as part of the European Athletics Championships.

I hope to see the following solutions at the event:

  • Free, high-speed Wi-Fi;
  • Cashless payment solutions like smart wristbands and other wearables;
  • Focusing on sustainability;
  • Design the attendee experience;
  • Live streaming (e.g. Facebook Live, Periscope, CrowdStreaming) to expand the reach of the event.
  • Virtually Live is an interesting virtual reality solution that enables fans to watch a sporting event as they want to. It can connect friends, fans and other virtual visitors.
  • Avoiding empty seats: to be involved with secondary markets. Empty seats are not only bad for the organisers, but also for the participants. I would recommend checking these solutions: Jamplify, Shareapass, and Seaters.
  • Artificial concierge in the form of chatbots.

Gleneagles golf course