Plans submitted for Sheffield stadium

Article posted by Coliseum, March 25^th, 2024

Image: Sheffield FC and Hadfiled Cawkwell Davidson

Sheffield F.C. and Sheffield Eagles, the city’s professional rugby league club, have submitted a full planning application to Sheffield City Council for a 5,000-capacity inclusive community stadium.

The new stadium, which will be based at the former Sheffield Transport Sports Club site at Meadowhead, will see a partnership forged between Sheffield Eagles and Sheffield FC.

The ambitious community stadium will encompass professional football and rugby league facilities as well as a cricket pavilion, multi-use artificial sports pitches, a football museum and an indoor community sports hall.

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Sheffield F.C. is the world’s oldest football club and since it was formed in 1857 has been shuttling between various venues.

Their first home was East Bank, so named as it stood on the East bank of the River Sheaf. The players would get changed at Park House, where members wrote the first rules for football, before making their way to the field.

The Sheffield Eagles are a professional rugby league club that play in the Betfred Championship (professional rugby league competition). The club play their home games at the Olympic Legacy Park on the former site of Don Valley Stadium, their former ground. The original club was formed in 1984 and formerly competed in the Super League.

Now the two clubs can look forward to having a new stadium to call their own.

The new stadium development scheme will be a fully inclusive community destination for sport and physical activity.

Long-term commercial viability will be achieved by maximising public access and community use through health and well-being activities, educational programmes, social and other community events. In addition, park-and-ride facilities will be available within the development.

Chairman of Sheffield FC Richard Tims said: “This development will not be just another shared rugby and football ground. It will be a new destination for Sheffield Eagles and ‘The World’s First Football Club’ Sheffield FC.

“Whilst the site will be grounded firmly in the unique history and heritage of both clubs, including Sheffield’s status as the ‘Home of Football’, it will also be an exciting destination for sport, physical activity, business, educational, cultural, and other events that will attract local, regional, national, and international audiences.”

The proposed 5,000-capacity stadium will meet the highest standards for both Football and Rugby League, adhering to both Football League and Super League criteria.

The destination will enable Sheffield Eagles and Sheffield FC to consolidate their full range of sporting, educational, community and cultural activities on the purpose-built site. In addition to both club’s men’s and women’s teams, Sheffield Eagles Wheelchair, Learning Disability and Physical Disability teams will all be based at the complex, which will allow the club to further develop homegrown talent and provide a base for both clubs’ extensive community programmes. The development will also generate highway improvements and cycleways in the local area.

Tims added, “We plan on creating a vibrant destination on both the days when Sheffield Eagles and Sheffield FC teams are playing in the stadium, as well as on non-match days through a busy diary of community, social and other activities such as conferences and meetings, functions and cultural activities.

“We want to create a destination that attracts and grows the supporter bases of both Sheffield Eagles and Sheffield FC, as well as drawing local communities and visitors to the various events and activities throughout the year.

“The stadium has the potential to generate positive economic development, social, and community impacts for the visitor economy of Sheffield and the wider City Region by attracting additional expenditure as well as raising the profile of sport in Sheffield in the UK and internationally.”

Sheffield Eagles Director of Rugby Mark Aston added: “We’re very excited to have reached the milestone of submitting our planning permission application for the development of the Meadowhead site which will give us the facilities we need to not only achieve our ambitions to return to Super League, but also to give us a base from which to grow our already extensive community programme.

“The feedback from both sets of fans and networks of sponsors has been overwhelmingly positive and everyone sees the potential of both clubs being unlocked with the facilities which are being planned for, which will be world-class.

“We have also had very positive feedback from our governing body, the Rugby Football League, who are supportive of our plans and see how the development can benefit both the Rugby League in Sheffield and on a national basis.

“It’s a great piece of news to kick off our 40th Anniversary Year with and we look forward to continuing our work with Sheffield FC on the next stage of the project.”

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