Sheffield Sharks on schedule to play out of new Park Community Arena home for 2023-24 BBL season

Matischen lobbied for many years to get a home built for his club and the sport of basketball in the Steel City, and finally found a partner in Canon Medical Systems.

Together they have built Park Community Arena, a 3,000-seater sports venue with three basketball courts in one side of the building, and 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 - on the other side.

Situated on the Olympic Legacy Park in Attercliffe, it cost £14m and will open on October 1.

“It’s going really well, we’re on schedule and we hope to be fully commercially operational by October 1,” said Matischen.

“We’ll be in the arena before that, getting sorted and testing. It’s all being built to time.

“We’re really pleased. We’re beginning to appoint staff to run the venue, beginning to take bookings for the venue; it’s all building nicely.

“I’m glad the basketball season’s ended because we’ve got so much work to do! But it’s a nice situation to have to deal with after the many years of trying to get into a position of having our own building to run.”

The Park Community Arena will also be home to Sheffield Hatters of the WBBL and amateur netball club DNC.

But Sharks will be the primary tenants. Due to the opening date of the Park Community Arena coming two and a half weeks after the BBL season starts on Thursday, September 14, it means Atiba Lyons’ side will start the season on the road.

“We’ll probably have a couple of away games first and then home games come October,” confirmed Matischen.

“We’ll hold all sorts of test events before then.

“By being on time it takes the pressure off us and we can test the arena and everything that goes with it, properly.”