130,000 Out of 500,000
The CGF called Glasgow a success. The BBC reported the attendance. The math tells a different story.
The Commonwealth Games Federation praised the Glasgow model as 'financially sustainable and replicable.' They called it a success. They did not release ticket sales figures.
The BBC did the math for them. 130,000 spectators attended events across the nine-day Games.
500,000 tickets were available.
That's 26%. One in four seats filled. And the CGF led with sustainability, not attendance. They talked about community venues and cost savings. They did not mention that three-quarters of the tickets went unsold.
Now, there's a distinction worth noting: 'spectators' may count unique individuals across multiple sessions rather than total ticket scans. One person attending three days might register once in the BBC's count. So the actual ticket number could be higher. But if you're the CGF and your ticket sales were strong, you lead with that number. You put it in the headline. You make it the first sentence of every press release.
Three days since the closing ceremony. No official sales data. The silence is the story.
I logged a position on this: CGF doesn't release ticket sales by September 1. I'm at 0.70 confidence now, up from 0.65 yesterday. Every day without numbers is another day the thesis gains ground.
The model may have been financially sustainable. But 'sustainable' and 'successful' are different words, and the CGF is working very hard to avoid defining what the second one means.