Sheffield cannot stage a school sports day on its only public athletics track. The City Athletics Stadium on Woodbourn Road has been closed since 6 April and will partially reopen on 23 June for three days a week, with no licensed competition and no school sports days. The UK government has now commissioned an initial strategic assessment into whether the North of England could host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the 2040s.
Sheffield has hosted major events before, and the bill is still being paid. The 1991 World Student Games delivered three venues the city still uses and a £658m council debt the city has just finished paying off thirty-three years later. The Don Valley Stadium, the showpiece of those games, was demolished in 2013, and the small Woodbourn Road ground the city relies on today is a three-days-a-week facility whose operators say they cannot fund a resurfacing. The 2040s feel a long way off when the 2025 athletics season is being run out of Rotherham and a Derbyshire pub.
The Announcement and the Gap It Opens
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport published the assessment on 17 May, instructing UK Sport to test whether a multi-city Games anchored in the North could work as a regeneration lever. The Olympic and Paralympic Games have been held in London three times, in 1908, 1948 and 2012, and nowhere else in the UK.
It’s time the Olympics came North and we showed what we can offer to the world. I couldn’t be more pleased to announce that we’re starting the firing gun on a long overdue vote of confidence in the North.
Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, said the words in the government’s Northern Olympics announcement on 17 May. The plan is for a multi-city model shared across the region, with Nandy pointing to Everton’s new Hill Dickinson Stadium as proof that Northern venues can compete. The British Olympic Association and British Paralympic Association hold the final call on any bid, the release notes. The government has stopped short of committing to a bid; what it has done is open a study that, in Nandy’s own words to Sky Sports, will look at “how we can do this, not whether we can do this.”
Ministers have also opened a Stadium Regeneration Accelerator, a cross-departmental programme that will work with the Premier League and English Football League on infrastructure, with the new funding working to “unblock barriers” to private development rather than paying for stadium rebuilds. UK Sport’s findings will determine whether to proceed to a more detailed technical feasibility study, with a final decision on any bid resting with the British Olympic Association and British Paralympic Association.
A Track Closed Since April, Partly Reopened Three Days a Week
Woodbourn Road is the ground the city has leaned on since the Don Valley came down. Sheffield Hallam University, which runs the stadium, shut the track on 6 April after it failed an independent assessment for shock absorption, the standard UK Athletics requires for any competitive licence. UK Athletics had warned the university as early as 2022 that a resurface was needed, the BBC understands.
Sheffield Hallam and Sheffield City Council have both confirmed they cannot afford the work. A spokesperson for the council said the authority “does not have the capital to fund the necessary works.” Sheffield Hallam has written to local athletics clubs inviting them back from 23 June, with the stadium due to open three days a week for “supervised sessions with a licensed coach,” according to the Woodbourn Road’s partial reopening plan. The track still cannot host licensed competition, school sports days or independent training, in the fears over the closed City Athletics Stadium that the BBC has tracked since the closure.
- Operating hours: Tuesday and Thursday 16:00 to 21:00; Sunday 09:00 to 13:00
- Format: supervised sessions, licensed coach only
- Track status: cannot host competitive events or school sports days
- Funded by: council and university have confirmed they cannot pay for the resurface
Tom Bailey, a coach at Hallamshire Harriers, told The Sheffield Star his under-12s group has dropped by around 60% since the closure, with young athletes unable or unwilling to make the trip to Herringthorpe Stadium in Rotherham where clubs have decamped. The English Schools Track Championships are scheduled for July, and qualifying times need track time Sheffield currently cannot provide, a gap the 60% drop in young athletes makes plain. Sheffield-born sprinter Imran Rahman, who represented Bangladesh at the Paris Olympics, has been driving to Loughborough to train.
A community group of running club members has submitted a proposal to take over the lease from the council, an option that would put the future of the venue in the hands of users rather than the university. The university itself says the future of athletics provision in Sheffield is a “broader issue that will require input and collaboration from a range of stakeholders.” Coaches have welcomed the partial reopening but warned of “congestion” with all clubs sharing the limited hours. Sheffield’s junior participation picture is already under pressure from barriers that go beyond the track surface, with a separate local campaign documenting the cost of kit blocking girls from sport in Sheffield.
The Debt Sheffield Is Still Paying for 1991
Sheffield’s last hosting gamble is still being unwound. The council took out loans to build the venues for the 1991 World Student Games, a multi-sport event the city used to rebrand itself after the steel closures of the 1980s. Don Valley Stadium, the 25,000-seat athletics centrepiece, opened in 1990, hosted the games, and was demolished in 2013.
Sheffield South East MP Clive Betts, who was council leader at the time, said the actual cost of hosting the games was £10m, paid off within two years. With interest and four rounds of refinancing, the bill on the council’s books reached £658 million, the BBC reported in the £658m World Student Games debt story. The figure was finally repaid in March 2024, more than three decades after the games themselves. The National Centre for Sport and Exercise Medicine and the Advance Wellbeing Research Centre now sit on part of the old Don Valley site, redevelopments supporters describe as a phoenix from the ashes. A new Woodbourn Road track, on the same scale, is not among the projects the council has named for the freed-up money.
Councillor Tom Hunt, the council leader at the time of repayment, said clearing the debt would be a “big milestone” and free up money for the Springs Leisure Centre and Hillsborough Leisure Centre. The same council that year confirmed it could not pay for the Woodbourn Road resurface.
- 1990: Don Valley Stadium completed for the 1991 World Student Games
- 2013: Don Valley Stadium demolished
- March 2024: Final repayment of the World Student Games debt
- 6 April 2025: City Athletics Stadium at Woodbourn Road closed
- 23 June 2025: Woodbourn Road partially reopens
A World First That No Longer Plays in Sheffield
Sheffield FC, recognised by both FIFA and the FA as the world’s first football club, has played outside the city boundary for the better part of a generation. Founded in 1857, Sheffield FC has called the Coach and Horses pub in Dronfield, Derbyshire, its home since 2001. The 250-seat capacity ground sits a 20-minute drive from Sheffield city centre. Its 5,000-capacity stadium planned jointly with rugby league club Sheffield Eagles at Meadowhead remains, for now, a planning application.
Sheffield FC and Sheffield Eagles submitted a full planning application to Sheffield City Council for the Meadowhead site, a former Sheffield Transport Sports ground. The proposal includes a stadium, cricket pavilion, multi-use artificial pitches, an indoor sports hall and a football museum. The application has attracted concern from residents over its impact, and a decision is the next step before any construction begins.
The plan was announced as a joint venture between the two clubs. Sheffield FC chairman Richard Tims said the development would be “a new destination for Sheffield Eagles and ‘The World’s First Football Club’ Sheffield FC.” Tims left the chairman role after 27 years, the BBC reported, without specifying the reasons. The cost of getting to a venue out of the city, and the cost of the kit itself, is the test Sheffield’s young footballers and runners face today.
The state of Sheffield’s main sporting venues, in one view, is below. The common thread is the gap between what was promised and what stands.
| Venue | Sport | Current state |
|---|---|---|
| City Athletics Stadium, Woodbourn Road | Athletics | Closed since 6 April; partial reopening from 23 June, three days a week |
| Don Valley Stadium site | Athletics | Demolished in 2013; Olympic Legacy Park now sits on part of the site |
| Sheffield FC ground, Dronfield | Football | 250 seats; based in Derbyshire since 2001 |
| Meadowhead stadium (planned) | Football and rugby league | Full planning application submitted to Sheffield City Council |
What Sheffield Could Realistically Put Forward
A multi-city Games depends on each city finding events that match what it already has, not what it wishes it had. On the current evidence, Sheffield has the strongest case for swimming and diving at Ponds Forge, ice events at the Sheffield Arena and Ice Sheffield, and snooker at the Crucible, which has hosted the World Snooker Championship for nearly 50 years. Athletics is a harder pitch, with the city’s only competitive licence lapsed and the public track on three-day-a-week hours.
The English Institute of Sport Sheffield, the Olympic Legacy Park and the World Snooker Championship are the assets South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard named when he backed the Great North proposal. Coppard, in a statement reported by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, framed the bid as a way to deliver a legacy of better health, more active children and a more confident region. His statement was light on the specifics of Sheffield’s current public facilities. It did not name the closed track at the heart of the current athletics community, or the question of who pays for the resurface. The bid he backs is a multi-city plan, with venues shared across the region.
The South Yorkshire Mayor Responds
Coppard’s response to the announcement leaned on Sheffield’s heritage rather than its current facilities. He cited the city as the home of football, where the original rules were written, and pointed to a roll call of athletes from Seb Coe to Jessica Ennis-Hill. None of those names depend on a working public track today.
South Yorkshire has a long, indelible sporting heritage. We’ve been at the centre of global sport for generations. Sheffield is the home of football, where the original rules were written, and for 50 years we’ve proudly hosted the World Snooker Championships.
Coppard, the South Yorkshire mayor, made the comments in a joint letter to Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy from the Northern Mayors and Leaders group, the Great North, with backing from Manchester’s Andy Burnham, Liverpool’s Steve Rotheram and the North East’s Kim McGuinness among others. London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan took a different line, saying any Olympics should use the capital’s existing London Stadium. “Not including the capital in an Olympics bid would be a missed opportunity,” a Khan spokesperson said. The dispute over which city hosts the centrepiece is itself unresolved before any feasibility work has begun.
The government has paired the Olympic assessment with a Stadium Regeneration Accelerator, a cross-departmental programme working with the Premier League and English Football League on infrastructure. The funding will not pay for stadium rebuilds, the release makes clear, and will instead work to “unblock barriers” to private development, with the Premier League’s chief executive Richard Masters citing an estimated £5 billion football stadium investment pipeline. Sheffield’s public athletics track, the one venue every school sports day in the city should be able to use, is not covered by the Stadium Regeneration Accelerator.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the UK looking at a Northern Olympics in the 2040s?
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy announced on 17 May that the government had commissioned UK Sport to carry out an initial strategic assessment into hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the North of England in the 2040s. The study will look at cost, socio-economic benefit and the chance of a successful bid before ministers decide whether to go further. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport published the announcement as a multi-city plan, with venues expected to be shared across the region. The findings will inform a decision on whether to commission a more detailed technical feasibility study.
What happened to Sheffield’s Don Valley Stadium?
Don Valley Stadium was built in 1990 as the centrepiece of the 1991 World Student Games and seated 25,000 spectators. The stadium was demolished in 2013, and the Olympic Legacy Park, including the English Institute of Sport, now covers much of the cleared ground. Sheffield’s only public athletics track today is the City Athletics Stadium on Woodbourn Road.
Is Woodbourn Road athletics track open?
City Athletics Stadium on Woodbourn Road closed on 6 April 2025 after failing a shock-absorption assessment. Sheffield Hallam University has invited clubs back to supervised sessions from 23 June, with opening limited to three days a week. The university has said athletes and clubs must train under a licensed coach and that the venue cannot host school sports days until the track is resurfaced. Athletes are still travelling to Herringthorpe Stadium in Rotherham and Loughborough for competitive sessions while the Woodbourn Road resurface goes unfunded.
Where does Sheffield FC play?
Sheffield FC, the world’s oldest football club, plays at the Coach and Horses ground in Dronfield, Derbyshire, where it has been based since 2001. The 250-seat venue is a 20-minute drive from Sheffield city centre. A 5,000-capacity stadium planned jointly with rugby league club Sheffield Eagles at Meadowhead is at the planning application stage with Sheffield City Council.
How much did the 1991 World Student Games cost Sheffield?
Sheffield South East MP Clive Betts, who was council leader at the time, said the actual cost of hosting the games was £10m, an amount the council paid off within two years. With interest and four rounds of refinancing, the bill on the council’s books reached £658m, a sum the council made its final repayment on in March 2024. The freed-up money is earmarked for the Springs Leisure Centre and Hillsborough Leisure Centre, not for a new Woodbourn Road resurface. The council said it could not fund the resurface in 2024, and the track remains a three-day-a-week facility.
