Inside Sheffield Sharks and Sheffield Hatters new Park Community Arena by Canon Medical Systems

When that dream finally becomes a reality this autumn basketball will only be a fraction of what that vision has to offer.

For the Park Community Arena developed by Canon Medical Systems on the Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park in Attercliffe will offer so much more than just basketball.

A South Yorkshire netball team has already signed up to play from there, table tennis is an option, as is boxing - basically any indoor sport that can fill a crowd of up to 3,000.

"It’s a mid-sized, flexible, multi-purpose arena, with basketball and netball being the primary drivers,” says Matischen, as he looks round proudly from inside the construction site of the 44,000 square foot building.

“All we build in England is big arenas like the one next door (Sheffield Arena) or leisure centres. There’s very few like this.”

‘This’ is possible because of Canon Medical Systems, who are paying £14m to have the arena built on the Olympic Legacy Park, which promotes health and wellbeing.

Part of the building will house a state-of-the-art medical diagnostics centre, operated by Living Care, that will cater for elite and professional sportspeople but also regular NHS patients.

“Canon Medical are using artificial intelligence which is a huge medical advancement,” explains Matischen enthusiastically. "With this new AI technology they can scan people to see where the weaknesses are in the body. They can now prevent injuries before they begin.

"Government have been asking for more community-based diagnostic centres, and this meets that criteria. There's no other facility in the country like this, which caters for community sport to professional, and has a diagnostic centre as well.

"Without the vision of Canon Medical Systems we couldn’t have achieved this. But the Olympic Legacy Park, and what it’s doing for health and wellbeing, resonated with them. They wanted physical activity and health promotion as part of their project, and we were already involved with community engagement initiatives with disadvantaged young people, and that’s where we come in.”

Park Community Arena (PCA) will run their side of the facility which has offices, locker rooms, a conference centre and three basketball courts, the centre one being the show court that will be surrounded by 2,000 retractable seats. Sheffield Sharks and the Sheffield Hatters will play from there.

"For the Sharks we can now dictate when we are playing, which we have never been able to do before,” says Matischen, who founded the club known as the Forgers back in 1991, an amateur outfit with no office space that had to rent the hall at Ponds Forge International Sports Centre.

“No more renting of sports halls. Money taken on the day from concessions and car parking comes to us, having never done so before. It could increase our revenues by 40 per cent."

PCA have a long term financial arrangement with Canon Medical to fund the arena.

"We are the club’s custodians,” says Matischen, when asked if the arrangement worries him.

“We cannot always own these sports clubs, but we can set them up for the future.

"It’s just great that it comes as part of this fantastic legacy project.”

Matischen was involved in the first discussions about the Olympic Legacy Park 10 years ago, an idea driven by Richard Caborn, the former sports minister, born out of the controversial demolition of Don Valley Stadium.

But to look around the old stadium site now and see medical centres, university buildings, a school for over 1,000 children, a Park Run course, a stadium that opened for Sheffield Eagles Rugby League club last Spring and now this splendid facility for basketball and other indoor sports, is to see a legacy in action.

“The OLP was following its original plan, but now it’s going to be even bigger than we envisaged,” beamed Matischen. “This place demonstrates there is an Olympic legacy in action.”

And there is a future plan just as grand. Sharks are wasting no time using their platform to lay down roots in the community. Already with a strong junior section that boasts 400 boys and 100 girls with the Hatters, they have applied to Basketball England to run an elite basketball academy with the University Technology College, which has a building on the OLP site.

“Students can get an education at the college and then they can train here morning and afternoon and it will be our coaches overseeing their development,” he says, as he takes one last look around.

"When I see this building, I say to myself, maybe it was worth waiting seven years for after all.”