A successful three years for Derby Arena

Derby Arena

Thu 22 Mar 2018

This week marks the third anniversary of Derby Arena opening for business. During that time it has continually strengthened what it offers visitors and residents.

Derby Arena was built as an ambitious replacement for Moorways Sports Centre. Instead of building a conventional sports hall, the Council took the opportunity to construct a facility that offers far more to Derby residents. The primary purpose of Derby Arena is to provide opportunities for people to be more physically active and improve their health and well-being. In addition to this it also hosts a wide range of events including national sporting championships, comedy, music and the pantomime as well as hosting conferences.

Since it opened Derby Arena has had over a million visits and this year it has held 32 events, far more than the 12 in the original business case. It has hosted numerous household names including the likes of Professor Brian Cox, John Bishop and Laura Kenny CBE competing in the National Omnium.

Speaking about the three year anniversary Councillor Amo Raju, Cabinet Member for Leisure, Culture and Tourism, was positive on what Derby Arena had already achieved: “It’s fantastic that Derby Arena is successfully delivering such a strong and diverse offer. We can clearly see it is providing a strong future for sport in the City. Going forward this ambitious facility will continue to contribute to making Derby an even greater place to live, work and visit.”

Derby Arena is inspiring people to be physically active. Recent sporting success has demonstrated how effective the track programme has been. It has produced the first riders from outside of British Cycling programme to represent Great Britain at the World Championships in a decade. On top of this five riders from Derby Arena have been selected to represent England, Scotland and Wales at the Commonwealth Games. Para cyclist Katie Toft will also be representing Team GB at the Paracycling World Championships this week. Last month amateur rider Charlotte Parnham broke the British record for the flying kilo that has stood for several decades.

As well as being a hugely successful sports centre Derby Arena is substantially ahead of the business case originally set out when it was built. It generates over £700k in tax revenues, far more than it costs taxpayers in revenue subsidy.

“We were welcomed with open arms when we enquired about the possibility of using the arena during the winter months that was the first year the arena opened.” Bryan Parker – Derby Arena Bowls

“We’ve had nothing but positive feedback from those who attended those from Badminton England and from Televideo.” – Alex Molloy Sports Development Officer, Derby University

 “It’s put the track on the map world-wide and brought some attention to it so I think there will be more world record attempts here in the future.”

He added: “It’s just brilliant. You don’t get to come to this part of the world very often and it’s just nice to come to another world class velodrome and we have produced a world class time” – Sir Bradley Wiggins

 “This area of the country has been missing out and this is a proper good facility.” – Olympic Champion, Ed Clancy