'I'm very proud of it' - Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park boss hails success of ambitious sports project

Work on the £5m Scarborough Group-backed facility was due to start in March, but was delayed by the coronavirus crisis, with the 40-week construction programme now intended to begin in September in anticipation of a late spring completion date.

The delays have badly affected the Sheffield Eagles rugby league team, who were playing in Doncaster prior to the Covid-19 outbreak and have played in six different venues since Don Valley stadium was knocked down in 2013.

But Olympic Legacy Park (OLP) project director David Hobson insisted that the community stadium was just one part of a much broader vision for the ambitious Attercliffe development, and that the overall picture was one of great success.

He said: “The community stadium is a key part of Olympic Legacy Park and we want to get it open as soon as possible. I will admit it has taken a long time to get to where we are and that has affected the Eagles.

“We were ready to go in February, we had a contractor and the money was there from the Scarborough Group - but then Covid-19 pitched up in March.

“People do like to see construction and progress and we are very mindful of the rugby league world cup next October, but we are progressing on a number of other fronts and not just the stadium.”

When complete, the stadium will feature 750 permanent seats as well as changing facilities, retail units, conferencing facilities and office space.

However, David said that while the original vision for the Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park was to replace the sports that were available at Don Valley stadium, the scope of the project had grown considerably since then.

“The plan in 2013-14 was to build a new smaller community stadium with other things happening around it,” said David.

“But when Richard Caborn got involved we began to bolt on health and wellbeing as well, bringing those things together with sport at the elite and community level.”

As a result, at the OLP today you can either watch or participate in 15 Olympic sports or eight Paralympic sports, and the site was also being used by Yorkshire County Cricket Club and for Junior ParkRun until Covid-19 intervened.

In addition, the University Technical College Sheffield (UTC) and Oasis Academy have been using the community stadium’s pitch itself for more than two years and they currently have more interest in it from the community than they can accommodate.

However, it is perhaps the elements of the park that were not in the original vision that in David’s view have elevated the OLP into the world-class centre for sport, health and wellbeing it has now become.

This includes the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre (AWRC) which opened in January and recently helped give 20 new health-based businesses a push through its ‘wellbeing accelerator’ programme.

Another research centre - The Centre for Child Health Technology - has also recently moved to the design phase, with those plans due to be shared with investors in 8-10 weeks time.

And the Scarborough Group have recently unveiled plans to transform everything from the AWRC all the way through to Broughton Lane into a million square feet of workspace, retail units and a hotel.

Despite the setbacks for the stadium, as someone with long links to the area going back as far as the World Student Games, David says he is immensely proud of what the OLP has so far achieved.

“I have been involved in this for the last five years and I am very proud of it - I think we have delivered a lot from what used to be Brown Bayleys and the Don Valley Stadium,” he added.

"What we want is to give the opportunity for a young child to come from Darnall to go into the Oasis Academy and the UTC, and then to either be an Olympian or to go into the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre or the Centre for Child Health Technology, that for me would be great.”

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