'Ennis stadium' plan to be revealed (From Romsey Advertiser)
When news happens, text ROMS and your photos or videos to 80360. Or contact us by email and phone.
'Ennis stadium' plan to be revealed
5:16am Tuesday 12th March 2013 in National News © Press Association 2013
Fans watch Jessica Ennis win the 800 metres in the London 2012 Heptathlon confirming a gold in the event, on the big screen at the Don Valley Stadium.
Major redevelopment plans for the site of the condemned stadium where Olympic hero Jessica Ennis was discovered and trains will be revealed on Tuesday.
The decision to close and demolish the £29 million Don Valley Stadium, in Sheffield, as part of council cost-cutting measures was announced earlier this month.
Plans for the "biggest Olympic legacy project outside of London" focusing on the site of the stadium will be revealed on Tuesday morning.
The proposals will be outlined by former sports minister Richard Caborn at a news conference at the English Institute of Sport, in Sheffield.
The former Labour MP will outline the key strands of the scheme, to be located in Sheffield's Don Valley. He will also showcase what the project, which is focused on the redevelopment of the Don Valley Stadium footprint, could look like.
The Labour-run Sheffield City Council announced the closure of the Don Valley Stadium on March 1 as part of £50 million of savings it must make next year. It said the £700,000 it spent subsidising the facility in 2012/13 was unsustainable as the stadium was running at a loss.
The council said it subsidises every visit by more than £5 and it requires major repair and maintenance work - totalling around £1.6 million. It proposed the reopening of a track at the smaller Woodbourn Road Stadium nearby.
Olympic heptathlon gold medallist Ennis was discovered at Don Valley when she went to a summer holiday athletics club when she was 10. She continues to train at the stadium, which is home to the City of Sheffield Athletics Club. After the closure was announced, Ennis tweeted: "So sad to lose Don Valley Stadium!" adding "Where it all started for me. Great memories."
Her coach, Tony Minichiello, said the closure was "disappointing" and called for a major rethink of how sport in Britain is organised and funded.
The 25,000-seat stadium, which was a temporary home to Rotherham United FC for four seasons and has hosted gigs by Michael Jackson, Celine Dion and the Spice Girls, was built as the centrepiece of a £147 million construction programme when Sheffield hosted the 1991 World Student Games.
