GLASWEGIANS left bereft by the end of the Games will be eager to secure tickets for the 2016 Olympics, experts say.

City-based psychology professor Paddy O'Donnell says Games fans may sign up to big sporting events as a coping mechanism.

But he believes the success of the Games in Scotland will have no impact on the way people choose to vote in the independence referendum.

The 11-day event went out with a bang on Sunday as organisers, officials and spectators dubbed it 'the best Games ever'.

Now experts are speculating on how the population will adjust.

Mr O'Donnell, deputy head and director of teaching at the psychology department at Glasgow University, said the comedown will be felt hardest by the people at the heart of the Games.

He said: "Organisers and volunteers will really feel the loss because their daily routines will be affected - they've been used to it every day.

"Their whole careers might be changing and they will have to process that.

"It may even affect people in other areas, for example in the roads department who helped plan everything."

He said other residents could feel "a sense of loss in the abstract".

He said: "There was a lot of build up to the event and it was a very emotional occasion on many levels.

"In that way, people will feel a sense of loss.

"You move from being the capital of the Commonwealth Games to being just a city quite far up north and second to Edinburgh.

"How that affects people's behaviour varies."

Mr O'Donnell said it could result in people booking holidays in a bid to attend the Olympics, which are being held in Rio in 2016, or the next Commonwealth Games, in the Gold Coast, Australia, in 2018.

He said: "It may translate to people signing up for the Gold Coast or the Olympics.

"It could really generate an interest in sporting competitions and it may mean people in Glasgow will go to more of these kinds of events."

Mr O'Donnell said he did not think the Games would have any impact on the outcome of the independence vote in September.

"Scottish identity means different things to different people," he said.

"It might just reinforce what they felt at the beginning of the event."

rachel.loxton@eveningtimes.co.uk