This is what York’s community stadium will look like

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How the new stadium could look. Click to see the full image

York’s Community Stadium, the future home of York City FC and York City Knights, will be built by a consortium led by Greenwich Leisure Ltd the city council announced on Tuesday (August 26).

The group was confirmed as the the preferred bidder for the delivery of the York Community Stadium and Leisure Complex. It proposes to construct an 8,000 all-seater stadium – an increase in capacity of 2,000 seats on the original proposal.

The complex will also include a swimming pool as well as hospitality, fitness, play and conferencing facilities.

Leader of City of York Council Cllr James Alexander said the announcement marks the completion of an 18 month procurement process and represents a significant milestone for the delivery of the York Community Stadium and Leisure Complex.

“Over the last three years we have made great progress in securing planning and funding, with work to begin in spring 2015,” he said.

“This landmark destination will provide an exciting mix of community and commercial leisure uses for the city which exceeds our original expectations.

“The commercial element provides the vast majority of the funding for the extensive community facilities.

“We are creating a leading family leisure destination in the North of England and are doing so with minimal impact to the public purse by leveraging £5 of commercial investment for every £1 of council spend.”

The leisure complex, which will replace the existing Waterworld and Courtney’s Gym complex next to the stadium, will provide a 25-metre, six-lane swimming pool complemented by a separate teaching pool and fun pool with exciting water features for children.

The scheme will also provide a new sports hall facility for netball, badminton and basketball with spectator viewing for up to 250 people, a new 100-station gym with dance and spinning studios and an extreme adventure sports zone, all under the same roof.

There will also be three, 3G five-a-side pitches at the site adding to the impressive leisure offer and helping to support community initiatives and encouraging sport participation for all ages.

Project partners

Cllr Sonja Crisp, cabinet member for leisure, culture and tourism, said the community hub at the complex is the first of its kind in the city.

It will provide facilities for partners to the project, including

• the York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
• York St John University
• Be Independent (CIC) and
• Explore York Libraries and Archives Ltd.

The York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust will use space in the stadium to provide training, development and administration. The Explore Library will provide a new facility, while the York St John University Institute of Community Sport and Wellbeing will provide a programme of activity to promote sport, activity, health and education.

An independent Living Assessment Centre will provide face to face advice to enable disabled or elderly people to carry on living independently in their home.

Chris Symons, Director of Development for GLL, said: “We are delighted to have been selected as the preferred bidder for the Community Stadium and Leisure Complex in York.

“The plans for the new stadium, leisure centre and community hub, are truly ground breaking and represent a unique scheme that is sure to become a flagship project regionally as well as nationally.

Britain’s largest leisure centre operator, GLL is a charitable social enterprise which operates more than 140 public leisure centres across England and Wales.

“Our 20 years of experience, coupled with our status as a ‘not for profit’, means that we have both the operational skills and community focus to enable us to successfully operate these high quality facilities for the benefit of the entire community,” Mr Symons said.

A paper, published on September 1, will be presented at the council’s Cabinet meeting on September 9 asking for approval to proceed.

Construction is expected to start in spring 2015 and facilities will be operational by late summer 2016.