Park Community Arena: 'New and unique Sheffield Sharks home will be incredible for team and community'

The start of construction of the Park Community Arena was unveiled yesterday at the Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre in Attercliffe.

The arena will be the new home of the BBraun Sheffield Sharks when it is completed in the summer of next year and this move could be incredibly significant for Sheffield’s biggest basketball team.

It is being developed by Canon Medical Systems and will feature three full-sized basketball courts, a multi-purpose community area with a cafe and hospitality, capacity for 2,500 spectators, and a ‘unique’, ‘region’s first’ medical diagnostics centre, as well as being the UK’s first net-zero carbon sports and healthcare facility which is affordable.

This move will bring significant progress to the Sharks, who will not only be moving into an improved and bigger facility, but will be able to develop their academy and look forward to a much brighter future.

The activity plan, presented by Sharks chairman Yuri Matischen, will see the club create an elite basketball academy, community programmes hosted by the Sharks and the Hatters, and opportunities for basketball and netball grassroots teams.

Not only will the BBraun Sharks be huge beneficiaries of this one of a kind facility, but the local and wider community of Sheffield will also benefit massively from this arena.

The medical diagnostics centre, developed by Canon Medical Systems, will bring healthcare closer to the people and will aim to reduce that fear or anxiety people have of seeking healthcare at hospitals, offering a one-stop-shop healthcare check and close-to-the-community approach.

Canon Medical Systems aims to give healthcare back to the communities and improve AI diagnostics to give detailed diagnostic imagery and benefit all patients long-term.

The prospect of this medical system at PCA sounds very promising for Sheffield and will allow people to feel more comfortable attending minor surgery appointments as well as helping to diagnose conditions earlier.

This arena has the potential to benefit the Sheffield Sharks and the community hugely and it goes to show what a good piece of collaboration between parties can do for the community.