The
original Hillsborough Park Sports Arena opened on 25
August 1956 (see picture, right) with a gala athletics
event. Over the next 30 years, its cinder track, simple
changing rooms and wooden terraced seating served Sheffield
well, hosting hundreds of local and regional athletics
events. At its height in the 1960s and 1970s it was
home to both Sheffield United Harriers and Hallamshire
Harriers, the City's two biggest running and athletics
clubs. In the 1980s it also became the home of Sheffield
Football Club -- the world's oldest football club.
While
the Arena was a fine facility at the time it was
built, it was beginning to look out-dated and dilapidated
by the late 1980s. The building of the Woodbourne
Road athletics stadium and later Don Valley Stadium
in the late '80s sealed the Arena's fate in its first
incarnation. By 1991, the Arena had been abandoned
both as an athletics and football venue and was fast
becoming a derelict site.
It was around this time that the dream of a new community
sports facility on the historic site was first mooted.
In early 1992, Sheffield City Council Leisure Services
approached Junior Eagles Amateur Rugby League club --
then beginning to use the site as their first permanent
home ground -- and Hallamshire Harriers -- whose clubhouse
was in the car park just outside the Arena -- with a
view to forging a partnership through which the old running
track could be developed. The idea was simple: an organisation
would be formed as a joint venture to develop the site
as a community sports facility. The Hillsborough Arena
Sports Association (HASA) was set up.
But
things did not run quite as smoothly as the Council
-- and both sports clubs -- had hoped. In 1994
Hallamshire Harriers withdrew from the partnership.
The rugby club, now named Sheffield Hillsborough
Eagles (the name change having occurred after the
introduction of 'open age' men and women's sides)
decided to continue alone.
Hallamshire
Harriers decision to leave meant that the Association's
constitution would have to be amended. Hillsborough
Hawks were nevertheless committed to wider community
involvement
and included representatives of the community in
the revised constitution. The constitution's objectives
(still
relevant today) are: 1. To provide, maintain and develop facilities so that
constituent sports clubs can seek to fulfill their objectives
as laid down in their individual constitutions
2. To encourage the promotion and practice of the sports of constituent clubs
in the Sheffield area
3. To facilitate the use of the Hillsborough Sports Arena as a sporting, recreational
and social center for the people of the Hillsborough and adjacent communities
4. To promote and develop active involvement in sporting activities for young
people in Hillsborough and adjacent communities
5. To undertake other activities incidental or conducive to the furtherance
of these objectives
With these in mind, HASA set about preparing a Sports
Lottery application. The plan was to build a new clubhouse,
all-weather training facility and two rugby pitches. After
much hard work from a small, dedicated team, and a number
of set-backs and difficulties, HASA's application for Lottery
funding was submitted in October 1995. All there was left
to do was wait... After
what seemed like an eternity, the Lottery Sports Panel made its judgment
in June 1996. The result was jubilation in Hillsborough, as HASA received
a provisional award from the Lottery Panel of £234,000 out of a
proposed scheme of £325,000. There was still a long way to go before
work could begin, |
