Revolution looms for city's sport

Everything is about to change for Sheffield Sharks since a promised five figure investment by sponsors DBL Logistics.
Yuri MatischenYuri Matischen
Yuri Matischen

The newly re-branded DBL Sharks Sheffield look forward to their final season at the English Institute of Sport (2016-17) before moving to the city’s new Olympic Legacy Park.

Sharks aim to move into a new community arena on the site of the former Don Valley Stadium, knocked down in November 2013 - it should be ready for the 2017-18 season.

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Club chairman Yuri Matischen said: “There’s already a new school on that site, a university technical college, the future home of the Sheffield Eagles on a 3G pitch and it will be the future home of the Sharks in a new arena. A group of us is looking at bringing that to fruition, and it will be 2,500 seats in basketball mode, but it will be a multi purpose venue. It will be much more of a club venue, rather than just a pay as you go type facility, so it’s a home for hopefully volleyball, basketball, netball, futsal, but the Sharks will be a key anchor tenant of that venue and will have priority over its training and its playing.

“We’re also looking to encourage other basketball teams to come into that venue, so it will feel like the home of basketball in the city. We’re looking to brand it that way and all our other partners are important, as we will be the indoor facilities for the school and for the college alongside us.

“On one court they’ll be having their PE lesson and on the next court the Sharks will be training.

“What we’re trying to do there is create an ethos. It’s not just try to be like Mike Tuck, you can actually train alongside Mike. That’s the whole ambition of that park, to say this is a way of changing how young people view their health and fitness, and their mums and dads.”