The organisers were calling a spade a spade.

We have written much about the theory of the European Championships concept since, with the suggestion that bringing together athletics, aquatics, cycling, gymnastics, rowing, triathlon and golf would collectively lead to coverage being boosted, particularly with Europe's free-to-air broadcasters involved.

The early impressions are that the theory has proved accurate.

A brief question and answer session with a few friends back home resulted in the general impression that the reputation of the various Championships has enjoyed a boost, with coverage deemed to be holding its own in the sports pages.

If we are being blunt, it has so far been a better marketed version of the existing European Championships.

The packaged event, so far, has given the impression of being a "Games".

Throughout the first couple of days, I have lost count of the number of times that I have heard somebody refer to the event as "Games" or the "European Games" when referencing Glasgow 2018. Several of the media buses have notices, put up for the public, which state that normal service will be disrupted for the "European Championships Games".

While it has had the feel of a Games, the fact it is seven sports has made it feel more bite-sized. This I imagine has made it easier for television companies and viewers to follow live.

Running the insidethegames Live Blog with my colleague Dan, it has been notable the number of times one us has told the other that their sport is coming to an end, with the other saying that their sport is getting underway.

From what I have heard from television viewers, this transition from coverage of one sport to another has largely been seamless as well.

The major achievement of the Championships has been to get the free-to-air broadcasters here to cover it. For instance, the BBC’s decision to send essentially their full line-up of presenters and pundits has certainly lifted the prestige of the events compared to what they would previously have on their own.

Athletics and swimming would probably have had a similar level of coverage and I would not expect much of a difference there.

The European Cycling Championships are largely ignored, however, despite the steady stream of success that British cyclists tend to provide. Both gymnastics and rowing at continental level have also surely had a major spike compared to their previous stand-alone editions.

Compare this to the 2015 European Games in Baku, which was shifted out onto the relatively recently formed pay TV channel BT Sport and as a result barely registered in the minds of the British public.

With these events needing to appeal to the more casual sports fans to be successful, the benefit provided by having free-to-air broadcasters is surely a huge one.

Obviously there are a couple of aspects that do need to be considered. Given that the Championships are in Glasgow it is probably fair to suggest that the British contingent covering the event is far, far higher than it would be if it were in Eastern Europe.

It will be fascinating to see how the coverage of the Championships differs in Britain when they are, in all likelihood, taking place somewhere else in 2022.

The sports featuring here in Glasgow are generally the ones where Britain tends to enjoy success at European level, along with the likes of France, Italy and Germany.

The package of sports does have something of a Western European feel to it, which I would suggest could be reflected in potential hosts for the future.

While it is certainly early days - we are only four into the event as it stands - you can envisage this format succeeding and potentially being replicated.

I do not think it takes a huge stretch of the imagination to package together the majority of combat sports, such as boxing, karate and taekwondo, and selling it to audiences as the "European Championships" as well.

While I would expect this event would not garner the same levels of interest shown in the early days here in Britain, it would potentially be lapped up in countries in Eastern Europe.

There would be some boundaries, including ensuring existing calendars are not impacted too heavily by the changes.

This has been one of the advantages of this two week window, as the event fits in well with the calendars of sports like rowing and gymnastics, which have World Championships coming up in September and October respectively.

It has helped to ensure that top names are competing in each sport, with a host of Olympic and world champions featuring so far. One journalist commented to me that he was unsure whether they would have bothered to cover the event had star names not featured on the start-list.

Another very welcome advantage is that the European Championships has filled the gap existing between the end of the FIFA World Cup and the start of the top domestic football league seasons getting underway.

I remain very sceptical about what the team golf event will add next week, with my gut feeling being that the competition is only on the programme because we are in Glasgow. I hope to be proved wrong though.

While the Championships certainly feel like they are up and running, it did feel like a very tame start to the event.

This was partly due to there being no medals on the opening day of competition, with rowing heats and qualification rounds in artistic gymnastics and team pursuit track cycling on the schedule.

Now, I am a fan of track cycling, but watching 21 consecutive team pursuit rides is not how I would try to the open a Championships with a bang.

The start also showed the value of having an Opening Ceremony to really create a buzz and an atmosphere.

The main issue with Opening Ceremonies is that they are normally extremely expensive, but you certainly are aware that a major sporting event is underway when they take place.

Billed as the "Great Big Opening Party", Glasgow's curtain raiser was a nice event that showed off local talent, but I am not sure it really raised expectations of what was to come or resonated too heavily beyond a square in the centre of the Scottish city.

The first impressions though have been promising, despite these small criticisms.

I look forward to seeing how the dual host format kicks in when athletics action starts in Berlin tomorrow.