Saturday 4th January 2025 ko 15:00

Sheffield & Hallamshire League- Premier Division

SHEFFIELD CITY 0

JUBILEE SPORTS 6 (Barnsley 25 Turner 60 Evison 65p Taylor 83 Reet 86 90+6)

Att 31 at Sheffield Olympic Legacy Stadium, Attercliffe

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It is a curiosity that the Olympic Legacy Stadium may well be part of the legacy of the 2012 London Olympics, and is the only such stadium built outwith the host city, but its roots lie with a completely different Olympics.

It lies on part of the site of the 25,000 capacity Don Valley Stadium, built in 1990 as part of Sheffield’s bid to host the Olympics. That idea soon foundered and was rapidly downgraded into hosting the 1991 Summer Universiade, or World Student Games if you’d prefer. The problem was the stadium alone cost £29 million and the only TV companies broadcasting in the UK that bought the footage were Yorkshire TV and BSB – who remembers the Squarials?

The result was a massive debt, the people of Sheffield paid a supplement to their Council Tax until 2024 and the stadium never made money. It was suggested as a host for the 2005 World Athletics Championship, after the debacle of the cancelled Picketts Lock, Edmonton, but the games went to Helsinki. Save for Jan Železný breaking the World Javelin record here, necessarily seeing the javelin redesigned to make it travel less distance the stadium never really had a raison d’etre.

In footballing terms Rotherham United used the Don Valley between 2008-12 after losing Millmoor, but the FA made it clear that the club could only the ground for 4 years; they’d had their fingers burned over the Wimbledon/ Milton Keynes affair, so they got the New York Stadium built and moved back home. The likes of Sheffield FC and Handsworth used the stadium but it was far too big for their needs.

Arguably the longest tenants were Sheffield Eagles Rugby League but even they merged with Huddersfield Giants for a season, before the Sheffield name was lost and the remainder of the club carried on as Huddersfield Giants, and a phoenix Sheffield Eagles club was formed and eventually moved back to the Don Valley in 2012.

With so little to make the place pay it was of little surprise that the stadium was closed in September 2013 despite a campaign to keep it open and was demolished soon after. It’s replacment was what you see here, the Olympic Legacy Stadium offers a more realistic 2,000 capacity home for the Sheffield Eagles, and currently two football teams use here, Sheffield City and Kiveton Park who will rename themselves Attercliffe for next season.

Elsewhere on the site is the Park Community Arena situated behind one goal, home to two basketball teams, the Sheffield Sharks and Sheffield Hatters. There’s also a Wellbeing Centre, and an education centre. Oddly the most poignant thing I felt, was the Olympic flame cauldron, in one corner just tucked away enough to feel irrelevant, a nod to a gambit that failed.

Even in a reduced sized stadium the few people there struggled to make the place have any atmosphere. At least the tea bar was open for hot drinks to stave off the cold as Sheffield City, rock bottom of the table sported a number of new signings to try and to improve on what has been a terrible season for them. But once Jordan Turner scored Jubilee Sports’ second, the home defence slowly crumbled.

I can’t pretend that it was a good game, or that the ground is anything other than a municipal sports stadium. But it is interesting and not just for the history.