Sheffield unveils £40m sports complex - but it’s a ‘back of fag packet’ estimate

A PROPOSAL to level the track where Olympic hero Jessica Ennis trains and replace it with a new athletics facility and a rugby ground has been announced less than a fortnight after the decision to sacrifice Sheffield’s Don Valley Stadium.
An artist's impression of a new sports facility for the Don Valley stadium footprint in Sheffield. Below: The existing Don Valley StadiumAn artist's impression of a new sports facility for the Don Valley stadium footprint in Sheffield. Below: The existing Don Valley Stadium
An artist's impression of a new sports facility for the Don Valley stadium footprint in Sheffield. Below: The existing Don Valley Stadium

Backers of the new scheme claim it could create more than 900 jobs.

But former sports minister and Sheffield Labour MP Richard Caborn, who announced the proposal in the city today, admitted the current £40 million estimated cost was still a “back of a fag packet” estimate.

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He said the plan was to access a range of funding opportunities but stressed it would be funded by a Sheffield City Council subsidy.

An artist's impression of a new sports facility for the Don Valley stadium footprint in Sheffield. Below: The existing Don Valley StadiumAn artist's impression of a new sports facility for the Don Valley stadium footprint in Sheffield. Below: The existing Don Valley Stadium
An artist's impression of a new sports facility for the Don Valley stadium footprint in Sheffield. Below: The existing Don Valley Stadium

The decision to close and demolish the £29 million Don Valley Stadium, in Sheffield, as part of council cost-cutting measures was announced earlier this month.

Today Mr Caborn said the new proposal to replace the stadium will be the “biggest Olympic legacy project outside of London”.

He said it would involve an upgrade of an existing athletics facility half a mile away and building a stadium for both codes of rugby on part of the footprint of the current Don Valley Stadium.

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Labour-run Sheffield City Council announced the closure of the Don Valley Stadium on March 1 as part of £50 million of savings it must make next year.

The Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield.The Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield.
The Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield.

It said the £700,000 it spent subsidising the facility each year was unsustainable as the stadium was running at a loss.

The council said it subsidises every visit by more than £5 and it requires major repair and maintenance work - totalling around £1.6 million.

At today’s press conference, council leader Julie Dore said: “We are determined not to let this Government defeat this city.

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“We are still ambitious and we still will find solutions for Sheffield and the people of Sheffield.

“This is an opportunity our city will hopefully take forward.”

Ms Dore and Mr Caborn had to respond to repeated questioning about why this proposal was not announced at the time of the doom-laden decision about the Don Valley Stadium.

She said the two announcements were separate and, although she was aware Mr Caborn had been working on a solution, she did not know the details of the proposal until last week.

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Ms Dore stressed that the new proposal did not require council revenue funding.

The 25,000-seat Don Valley Stadium, which was a temporary home to Rotherham United FC for four seasons and has hosted gigs by Michael Jackson, Celine Dion and the Spice Girls, was built as the centrepiece of a £147 million construction programme when Sheffield hosted the 1991 World Student Games.

The funding of the games has provided 20 years of controversy in Sheffield which continues.

Many still criticise the Labour councillors of the time for landing the city with hundreds of millions of pounds of debt that is still being paid off at around £20 million a year and will not be cleared until 2024.

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Others have argued that the games kick-started a move to make Sheffield one of most important centres for sport in the UK and left the city with world-class facilities, including the Ponds Forge swimming centre.

Olympic heptathlon gold medallist Ennis was discovered at Don Valley when she attended a summer holiday athletics club at the age if 10.

She continues to train at the stadium, which is home to the City of Sheffield Athletics Club.

After the closure was announced, Ennis tweeted: “So sad to lose Don Valley Stadium!

“Where it all started for me. Great memories.”

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Her coach, Tony Minichiello, welcomed the proposed scheme today.

Mr Caborn said his team had looked at solutions based on the current stadium but none worked.

He stressed that there was no realistic use for a 25,000-seater athletics stadium any more and noted it had only ever been filled to capacity four times for athletics since it was built.

He said the new proposal will provide a range of facilities and had been developed with partners including both of the city’s universities, hospitals, the University Technical College (UTC) and Sport England.

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The former minister said the centrepiece of the proposal was a new home for the Sheffield Eagles Rugby League and Titans Rugby Union teams as well as new venues for basketball, gymnastics and snooker on or close to the site of the current stadium.

He said it would also involve a new centre linking the elite sport on the site to the development of Sheffield Hallam University’s Centre for Sports Engineering Research and the developing Medical Advanced Manufacturing Centre in Sheffield.

Mr Caborn said the athletics element would involve a refurbishment of the nearby, mothballed Woodbourn Road facility and include the building of 60m-80m indoor, all-weather training facility at that location.

He said the plans could possibly also include the development of a second UTC for Sheffield and the siting of the new National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine.

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“This would mean more of a concentration of diverse professional and elite sport than any other part of the UK in one square mile,” Mr Caborn said.

He added: “In effect it becomes an advanced sports and well-being park, giving a comprehensive delivery of the Olympic legacy that we promised in Singapore in 2005.

“It has the potential to build even further the sports, leisure and related wellness sector, embracing and advancing a range of partners in the Sheffield City region that will have real and measurable impact on sporting performance at many levels.

“This is an economic wealth generation project which would take the Don Valley Stadium site from being under-utilised to becoming an economic driver.”

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Responding to the plan, Lord Coe said: “I have seen the proposal and it is actually quite a thoughtful one and relies on the proper delivery of track and field in Sheffield which will form a significant part of the delivery of the Olympic and Paralympic legacy.

“These conversations are never easy and are based on local priorities but clubs, universities, other facilities and organisations are coming together to find a solution that works for Sheffield, works for athletics and works for sport in general.”