The Don Valley Stadium
is an athletics stadium in Sheffield, England. It is home to Sheffield Eagles RLFC and, as of the 2008-2009 season, Rotherham United FC. It was designed by Sheffield City Council's Design & Building Services and built by RM Douglas Construction. The complex opened in 1990, ready for the 1991 World Student Games and has since become a profitable centre for athletics in the area. It is named after the River Don, near which it lies.
The stadium is situated on the Sheffield Supertram line, between Attercliffe and Meadowhall. The stadium is also used for Channel 4's celebrity sports show, The Games
, and for concerts, hosting acts such as Celine Dion, Def Leppard, The Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, Michael Jackson, Tina Turner and Red Hot Chili Peppers as well as hosting the BritBowl, the championship finals of the British American Football League.
The stadium and facilities provide a training base for the City of Sheffield Athletic Club and is home to the Sheffield Half Marathon.
Don Valley Stadium is notable as being the largest athletics stadium in the UK, with a seated capacity of 25,000.
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DON VALLEY STADIUM TICKETS
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The Stadium
The whole of the running track and its infield is illuminated by the strongest floodlighting system in the country. Each of the five lighting towers used is 45 metres above track level and carries a lighting head as tall as a typical three storey house (11 metres high). All amenities for competitors and officials are at track level with all spectator facilities at natural ground level. This means, for example, that disabled spectators have level access from the main car park straight through to the mid level of spectator seating.
The track is sunk five metres below ground level and is sheltered by banks of spectator seating, creating a 'bowl effect'. This not only gives ideal viewing conditions, but also offers
athletes every opportunity of producing peak performances.
This record-breaking
philosophy has even had a bearing on the angle at which the track is set and its positioning is relative to the prevailing winds and the rise and fall of the sun. The finishing line has been positioned at the east end of the stadium which means that in the afternoon and evening when most meetings are held the sun will always be at the athletes backs in the finishing straight, as is the prevailing westerly wind.
VIP facilities are on a third level while the top-most of the four levels has been set aside for hospitality boxes and press areas.
The Stadium's major focal point is its grandstand which holds 10,000 spectators. The main canopy roof has an area of 6000 square metres and is made of Teflon coated glass fibre. It is supported by ladder masts reaching 12 m above the top of the grandstand, the latter are painted yellow and give the stadium its unmistakable appearance. They also give completely uninterrupted sight lines around the bowl although coverage from the rain in the bottom half of the stand can be problematic. Underneath the main stand is located an 85 m indoor running/warm up track.
Up to 15,000 spectators can also be accommodated on the open terracing giving a seated capacity 25,000 for sports events. For musical performances the stadium can accommodate 15,000 seated guests, but has a maximum capacity of 50,000 if the field is used to accommodate standing fans.
[1]
There were plans to use the stadium in a Sheffield bid for the
2002 Commonwealth Games (which eventually went to Manchester) and also to use it as a potential joint ground for the city's two football teams. In both of these eventualities the seated capacity would have been raised to 45,000. Although
Sheffield United and
Sheffield Wednesday have never played any games there, it was announced in June 2008 that the stadium will host
League football for the first time in the
2008–09 season.
Rotherham United will play their "home" league games there until a new community stadium is built in
Rotherham following the breakdown of negotiations with the owners of their previous home,
Millmoor.
[2] There have been questions raised about the agreement, and the
Football League has stipulated that the club must move back to
Rotherham within four years.
[3]
History
Completed in September 1990 at a cost of £29m, the Don Valley Stadium was the first completely new national sporting venue built outdoors in
Great Britain since
Wembley in the early
twenties. It was built as the centre-piece of a £147m construction programme needed to provide the necessary sports and cultural facilities to enable the city to host the 1991
World Student Games.
Jan Zelezny threw in the
Javelin on
29 August 1993 (which was a world record at the time) and infamously nearly hit the TV commentators who were interviewing close to the start/finish line.
Sheffield Eagles' record attendance was set in August 1997 when 10,603 spectators saw Sheffield play Bradford.
The Stadium is operated by
Sheffield International Venues and is owned by the
Sheffield City Trust
In May 2008. Rotherham United Announced that they will play at the stadium.
Music venue
The first rock concert to be held at the stadium was a
Def Leppard gig on
6 June 1993. The band were supported by
Thunder,
Ugly Kid Joe and
Terrorvision.
Since then a number of big names have performed at the venue;
Tina Turner held concerts at the stadium during her highly successful
Wildest Dreams Tour (1996) and
Twenty Four Seven Tour (2000),
Michael Jackson played at the stadium in 1997 as part of the
HIStory World Tour and
The Rolling Stones held a concert at the stadium on
27 August 2006 as part of their
A Bigger Bang Tour.
Other acts to have held concerts at Don Valley Stadium include
Bon Jovi (1995),
Paul Weller (1997), the
Spice Girls (1998),
Celine Dion (1999) and the
Red Hot Chili Peppers (2006).
During large concerts, the music being played from Don Valley can be heard up to two miles away in nearby
Rotherham..
References
- Stadium Hire
- Move to Don Valley Stadium
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/r/rotherham_utd/7500608.stm