£10m Belle Vue Sports Village plans unveiled

Proposals for a £10million sporting hub at Belle Vue in East Manchester have been unveiled.

The £10 million development will offer a range of unique, world class sports facilities for community use and elite sportsmen and women alike – while modernising the existing Belle Vue Leisure Centre.

The proposals include a new National Speedway Stadium and National Speedway Academy, a new all-weather pitch, a new National Basketball Centre, new rugby pitch and high quality improvements to the existing fitness and leisure facilities.

In terms of speedway, £4.5m building costs for the new National Speedway Stadium will be funded by the city council. This loan will be repaid by Belle Vue Aces though an annual rent as part of the club’s lease agreement.

The purpose built, 6,500 capacity speedway venue, with potential for additional temporary seating for larger events, could be the first of its kind in the country.

Belle Vue would also host a new National Speedway Academy, making Manchester a centre of excellence, encouraging grass roots development of new local speedway talent.

The centre of the track will host a new grass Rugby League pitch, for use by St Peter’s High School and the wider community.

A proposed National Basketball Centre, part funded by England Basketball, will include an extension to an existing sports hall to create a four court training centre that will also be suitable for a variety of national and international competition and events.

The plans also look to replace two water-based synthetic hockey pitches with a more robust 3G pitch, reducing the high water requirements of the current surfaces, and providing a new facility suitable for football, hockey and multi-sports.