Huge investment plans announced for former Don Valley Stadium

AN Olympic Legacy Park is to be created on the site of the former Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield.

The centrepiece will be a multi-million state of-the-art Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC). This will feature indoor and outdoor research facilities linking the medical, physical activity, leisure and sports sectors.

The plans will also see the Sheffield Eagles Rugby League club move into a new community stadium which will feature a synthetic pitch, a main stand seating 2,500, a 50-bed hotel, catering and hospitality areas and facilities developed in partnership with Sheffield second University Technical College (UTC).

Alongside this, a new sustainable multi-purpose indoor community arena will be the future home of the Sheffield Sharks. The facility will be built through private investment and deliver a building for sport, culture and business, with three full-size courts and seating up to 3000 people.

The Sheffield based sports and events business, MLS, will also move into the new facility.

The Park – a joint venture between Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Sheffield City Council and the private sector – has attracted nearly £40m of investment from the private sector (for basketball, rugby and a hotel), a second University Technical College and a school. A further £10m is being sought from the Regional Growth Fund.

Both the Park and the AWRC have the backing of the city’s two Universities, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Sheffield College, the local authority and the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce.

The AWRC model will mirror the highly successful Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (straddling the Sheffield-Rotherham border) which has successfully created a £150m Advanced Manufacturing Park where companies such as Boeing and Rolls Royce are located.

The AWRC will be home to around 50 researchers who will have fully instrumented indoor and outdoor laboratories capable of carrying out research on most physical activities. The facility will allow research on all sports but will be of particular benefit to those housed in the nearby English Institute of Sport.

The Olympic Legacy Park project leader, Richard Caborn, said: “We are taking the city’s heritage into a modern setting.

“This project has three clear objectives. We will deliver a multi-sports community stadium which can accommodate professional sports and will wash its face financially.

“Through the AWRC, we will bring academia, the medical profession and the full spread of physical activity across the City, from sedentary lifestyles to elite and professional athletes. In the words of Lord Coe, Sheffield will undertake world-class research and provide services that will deliver long-term, systematic change to benefit the health of the nation.

“Finally, we will deliver knowledge, intellectual property and practical development of products and services to the wealth creating sectors of health, wellbeing and sports sectors with the Sheffield City region.”

Ian Anniss, Sheffield Eagles director of community, development and education, added: “We have worked with some remarkably talented and visionary people on this project and it is an outstanding testament to what can be achieved by genuine partnership working.

“The new stadium will be like no other in this country, in that it will be designed and managed to have multiple uses that reflect the needs of the broader community as well as being a top class facility for performance rugby of both codes.”

Executive director of the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, Richard Wright, highlighted that the commercial opportunities around the whole wellness agenda and its associated technology are possibly one of the biggest opportunities Sheffield has seen for years.

“In many ways it is one of the legacies of our investment in sport in the region,” he said. “The city now has over 100 sport/activity related businesses and by linking that expertise to health we can be one of the best cities in the world for improving the health of a population. The Chamber cannot think of a more fitting use for the site of the Don Valley Stadium.”