University submits plans for £10m arena
The University of Worcester has submitted plans to build a £10m sports arena. The Worcester Arena will have 12 courts and will be located at the former fruit and vegetable market in Hylton Road.
The arena has been designed by Gloucester-based architect Roberts Limbrick, and is being developed by the University of Worcester.
Twelve courts will provide facilities for a full range of indoor sports, with special emphasis on international level basketball. It will also cater for major disability team sports, with all areas and changing rooms designed for independent wheelchair access.
Professor David Green, vice-chancellor at the University of Worcester, said: “The introduction of this arena will provide a first class facility for sports lovers in the city and region. It will attract a great range of top-class national and international events to the city, particularly in disability sport.”
The 57,048 sq ft arena will be capable of hosting “major indoor sports events”, said the university. Retractable seating will be provided for up to 1,850 people.
It will include sports treatment and first aid rooms, teaching and coaching spaces, a café, media and hospitality suites and other support facilities.
Located midway between the university’s St John’s Campus and City Campus, the steel framed building will be raised above the ground to protect the facility against the unlikely event that the river flood levels rise above the top of the existing flood bund which protects this area of Hylton Road.
The university said it was now engaged in a “vigorous fundraising campaign” to fund the £10m site.
Contractor Willmott Dixon has been initially appointed to price the works and work with consultants to develop the design, allowing construction work to commence in April 2011, subject to planning permission being granted. The arena is scheduled to open in April 2012.
