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New £50 million research facility, hotel and ground for Sheffield Eagles announced

The former Don Valley Stadium is set to be developed into a multimillion-pound research facility, a new ground for Sheffield Eagles and a 50-bed hotel.

The park is a joint venture between Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Sheffield City Council and the private sector. has attracted nearly £40 million of investment from the private sector (for basketball, rugby and a hotel), a second University Technical College and a school.

A further £10 million is being sought from the Regional Growth Fund.

The Olympic Legacy Park in Sheffield will feature a new Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC) for the medical, physical activity, leisure and sports sectors.

The AWRC model will mirror the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (straddling the Sheffield-Rotherham border) which is part of the 150-acre Advanced Manufacturing Park where companies such as Boeing and Rolls Royce are located.

It will be home to about 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 development will also involve Sheffield Eagles Rugby League Club moving 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).

A new sustainable multi-purpose indoor community arena will be the future home of the Sheffield Sharks.

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

“We will deliver a multi-sports community stadium which can accommodate professional sports and will wash its face financially.

“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.”

Richard Wright, executive director of the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce, said: “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. 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.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .