Sportcity

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Sportcity
City of Manchester stadium Bang 1.JPG
Sportcity
Location Beswick and Clayton, Greater Manchester
Coordinates 53°28′48″N02°11′21″W / 53.48000°N 2.18917°W / 53.48000; -2.18917
Owner Manchester Council
Manchester City F.C.
TypeSports, community, leisure
Construction
Built1999-2002
Opened2002

Sportcity in Manchester is a multipurpose sports and leisure facility. Originally built to host the 2002 Commonwealth Games, [1] [2] it is in east Manchester, North West England, a mile from Manchester city centre, and was developed on former industrial land including the site of Bradford Colliery.

Contents

Sportcity's largest structure, the City of Manchester Stadium, is home to Manchester City F.C. and is one of the largest football stadiums in England. Sportcity is also home to the National Squash Centre, Rugby Football League headquarters, Manchester Regional Arena for athletics and British Cycling, who operate out of Manchester Velodrome and the National Indoor BMX Arena.

Future developments will include Manchester City's £50m training complex and a leisure complex.

Location and venues

City of Manchester Stadium in its athletics configuration for the 2002 Commonwealth Games City of Manchester Stadium 2002.jpg
City of Manchester Stadium in its athletics configuration for the 2002 Commonwealth Games

The Sportcity complex is in Beswick and Bradford in east Manchester. A visitor centre provides information on the site's history from a heavily industrialised area to its ongoing regeneration. [3] The Etihad Campus tram stop on the Manchester Metrolink close to Joe Mercer Way became operational on 11 February 2013. [4]

Sportcity was the proposed location for the U.K.'s first SuperCasino, [5] but the plan was rejected by the House of Lords. [6] It was also the proposed site of an 85-metre (279 ft) wind turbine in 2006. Designed by Norman Foster, the turbine was intended to provide power for the stadium and nearby homes, but safety concerns about ice on the blades led to the proposal being abandoned. [7]

City of Manchester Stadium

The City of Manchester Stadium was used for the 2002 Commonwealth Games and is the home of Manchester City Football Club. The stadium with twelve 70 metre high masts and a capacity of just over 55,000 has become a landmark on the Manchester skyline. The stadium is leased to the football club. [8] The stadium lease was renegotiated in October 2010 and Manchester City will pay Manchester City Council £3 million a year rather than paying half the revenue over 35,000 ticket sales which amounted to approximately £2 million. [9] The club plans to increase the stadium's capacity to 60,000 by adding a third tier to the north and south stands. [10]

Etihad Campus

The Etihad Campus is located south east of the main stadium and is the main training base for Manchester City. It is made up of the Academy Stadium which plays host to Manchester City W.F.C. and Manchester City F.C. EDS and Academy as well as community spaces such as a leisure centre and Sixth Form college.

National Cycling Centre

The National Cycling Centre is a multipurpose cycling venue including the Manchester Velodrome, National Indoor BMX Arena, and mountain bike trials.

Manchester Velodrome

Manchester Velodrome National Cycling Centre - Velodrome - geograph.org.uk - 1595.jpg
Manchester Velodrome

Manchester Velodrome was built for Manchester Olympic bids in the 1990s and used for the 2002 Commonwealth Games. The velodrome had a lasting legacy and in the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the British cycling team—based at the velodrome—dominated the cycling events. [11] [12] The track has garnered a reputation for speed and by 30 March 2008, more than 15 world records had been set there, including Chris Boardman's 1996 and 2000 hour records and the 4000 metre team pursuit record set by the Great Britain men's team at the 2008 World Championships.

National BMX Arena

British Cycling and Manchester City Council, in partnership with New East Manchester worked together to deliver the 110,000-square-foot (10,000 m2) National Indoor BMX Centre which opened in 2011. [13] It was designed by Ellis Williams Architects, and built by contractors Sir Robert McAlpine. Alongside the velodrome, the £24 million complex will form the National Cycling Centre. It has 2,000 seats, a BMX area and offices for the headquarters of the British Cycling Federation. [14]

Manchester Regional Arena

Manchester Regional Arena Manchester Regional Arena - geograph-959916.jpg
Manchester Regional Arena

Manchester Regional Arena is a multipurpose stadium at SportCity primarily used for athletics and football. It was developed as the warm-up track for the 2002 Commonwealth Games held in the adjacent City of Manchester Stadium. It has hosted the AAA Championships and Paralympic World Cup, and was the reserve home ground of Manchester City reserves before the team moved to Ewen Fields in June 2010.

The National Squash Centre

The National Squash Centre is another part of the Sportcity complex which was constructed for the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Costing approximately £3.5m, the facilities include six courts and a glass-walled show court which cost £110,000. The show court is moveable: it floats on air like a hovercraft and can be positioned in the athletics hall for major tournaments. All the courts can be converted into singles or doubles courts at the touch of a button.

Rugby Football League

In August 2022 the Rugby Football League completed its move to Sportcity having previously based at Red Hall in North Leeds.

Future development

Derelict land in Openshaw West, Manchester City F.C. and Manchester City Council own 200 acres of land around East Manchester Openshaw west facing Eastlands.jpg
Derelict land in Openshaw West, Manchester City F.C. and Manchester City Council own 200 acres of land around East Manchester

In March 2010, Manchester City signed an agreement with Manchester City Council and the New East Manchester Agency to explore alternative leisure proposals to replace the regional casino giving the club permission to expand its facilities. [15]

Jack Rouse Associates, the company that owns Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi emerged as a possible developer. A mixed-use development was listed on its website in October 2010. [16]

It is the intention here to build a new 23,500 capacity indoor arena which could be used for events such as MMA, concerts, basketball and other events. [17]

See also

Related Research Articles

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The 2002 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XVII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Manchester 2002, was an international multi-sport event for the members of the Commonwealth held in Manchester, England, from 25 July to 4 August 2002. The event was to be hosted in the United Kingdom to coincide with the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II, head of the Commonwealth, and Manchester was selected for the 2002 Games ahead of London using a recycled part of the project, which lost the 2000 Summer Olympics and Paralympics to Sydney, Australia. The 2002 Commonwealth Games was, prior to the 2012 Summer Olympics, the largest multi-sport event ever to be held in the UK, eclipsing the London 1948 Summer Olympics in terms of teams and athletes participating. The 2002 Commonwealth Games had the largest number of events of any Commonwealth Games in history, featuring 281 events across 17 sports.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manchester Velodrome</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lee Valley VeloPark</span> Velodrome in Stratford, London, England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beswick, Manchester</span> Human settlement in England

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glasgow bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games</span>

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The SIT Zero Fees Velodrome is an indoor velodrome at Invercargill in the South Island of New Zealand. The $11 million velodrome is an indoor complex next to Stadium Southland, built on the western side of the stadium proper..

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manchester Regional Arena</span> Multipurpose stadium in Manchester, England

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Carrington Training Centre, sometimes referred to as Carrington, was the training ground of EFL League Two club Bury, leased from Manchester City. The League Two club moved into this complex in early 2015 when previous holders, Manchester City moved into a new £50 million training facility close to its Sportcity home in east Manchester. In 2020 Sale Sharks Rugby Union Team would become the new tenants of the ground, moving from their previous facility also based in Carrington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Indoor BMX Arena</span>

The National Indoor BMX Arena is an indoor BMX racing facility, located in Sportcity, Manchester, United Kingdom. The arena was designed by Ellis Williams Architects and built by contractors Sir Robert McAlpine. It is situated next to the Manchester Velodrome and the buildings share a common entrance as part of the National Cycling Centre. The arena cost £24 million to construct, seats 2,000 spectators and was opened in 2011. It is home to British Cycling’s BMX programme, which has produced world champions Shanaze Reade and Liam Phillips and Olympic champions Bethany Shriever and Charlotte Worthington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commonwealth Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome</span> Arena in Glasgow, Scotland, UK

The Commonwealth Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, known for sponsorship reasons as the Emirates Arena, is an indoor arena and velodrome in Dalmarnock, Glasgow, Scotland. Built for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, these venues hosted the badminton and track cycling events. Situated opposite Celtic Park in the East End of Glasgow, the complex is the headquarters of Sportscotland and Scottish Cycling.

Etihad Campus is an area of Sportcity, Manchester which is mostly owned and operated by Manchester City Football Club. The campus includes the Etihad Stadium, the City Football Academy (CFA) training facility and club world headquarters, and undeveloped land adjacent to both of these facilities. These two main portions of the campus site are linked by a 60-metre landmark pedestrian walkway/footbridge that spans the junction of Alan Turing Way and Ashton New Road. The term Etihad Campus embraces both the stadium – which already existed when the name was coined in 2010 – as well as much of the surrounding undeveloped land that existed at that time, although the term is also frequently used as a direct synonym for just the CFA portion.

The National Cycling Centre is a multipurpose cycling venue in Sportcity, Manchester, United Kingdom. It includes an indoor Velodrome and a BMX arena and outdoor mountain bike trials. It also has offices for British Cycling, the governing body for cycling in Britain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Venues of the 2022 Commonwealth Games</span>

The venues for the 2022 Commonwealth Games will be based in Birmingham, Cannock Chase, Coventry, Royal Leamington Spa, Sandwell, Solihull, Warwick, Wolverhampton, and London.

References

  1. ↑ McKeegan, Alice (15 July 2014). "Legacy of Commonwealth Games lives on in Manchester". men. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
  2. ↑ "The Games". Commonwealth Games Legacy. Archived from the original on 27 October 2007. Retrieved 5 December 2007.
  3. ↑ Welcome to SportCity, SportCity Manchester, retrieved 30 November 2011
  4. ↑ Metrolink - East Manchester line, (Transport for Greater Manchester), retrieved 19 May 2013
  5. ↑ "Manchester is surprise casino winner". BBC. 30 January 2007. Retrieved 5 December 2007.
  6. ↑ Branigan, Tania (29 March 2007). "Lords throw out plans for Manchester supercasino". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 5 December 2007.
  7. ↑ "City stadium turbine plan backed". BBC News. 28 September 2006. Retrieved 30 September 2006.
  8. ↑ "How Manchester City won the stadium lottery".
  9. ↑ "Manchester City give council an extra £1m". www.menmedia.co.uk. 2 October 2010. Retrieved 10 October 2010.
  10. ↑ Taylor, Daniel (18 August 2009). "Manchester City's grand plan for Eastlands and its surrounds". London: guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 8 September 2010.
  11. ↑ "How GB cycling went from tragic to magic". BBC Sport. 14 August 2008. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
  12. ↑ "How Team GB's weekend of glory happened". Metro. 17 August 2009. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
  13. ↑ "National BMX Centre opens in Manchester", BBC News, 8 August 2011, retrieved 30 November 2011
  14. ↑ National Indoor BMX Centre, Sir Robert McAlpine.com, retrieved 30 November 2011
  15. 1 2 "MCFC and Manchester City Council sign agreement on proposals for east Manchester". mcfc.co.uk. 12 March 2010. Archived from the original on 24 March 2012. Retrieved 8 September 2010.
  16. ↑ "Futbol World - Manchester, England". www.jackrouse.com. October 2010. Retrieved 28 October 2010.
  17. ↑ "Plans revealed for UK's largest indoor arena". 28 February 2020 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
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