Stadium in Leigh, Greater Manchester
Leigh Sports Village
is a multi-use sports,
[5]
retail and housing development in
Leigh, Greater Manchester
, England. The centrepiece of the development is a 12,000-capacity stadium which is home to professional rugby league team
Leigh Leopards
,
Manchester United's Under-21 and Academy teams
, and
Manchester United W.F.C.
The complex also plays host to amateur rugby league club
Leigh East
and amateur athletics club Leigh Harriers, who both occupy dedicated facilities on the site. Other facilities on site include the Leigh campus of
Wigan and Leigh College
, Leigh Sports Centre, which includes a gym, multi-use sports hall and swimming pool, a
Holiday Inn Express
hotel, a
Morrisons
supermarket and the Whistling Wren pub. During 2022, it hosted matches in the
UEFA Women's Euro 2022
.
Background
[
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]
Construction of the Leigh Sports Village stadium
Leigh Sports Village is a development southwest of Leigh town centre, on the south side of the Leigh arm of the
Leeds and Liverpool Canal
, close to
Pennington Flash Country Park
and accessed from the A579, Atherleigh Way and by pedestrian routes from the town and surrounding area. It is also close to the
A580 "East Lancashire Road"
. The scheme was initially developed to contribute to the regeneration of Leigh and provide modern facilities for local sports clubs, schools and the local community.
[6]
The main focus of the sports village is the stadium built for local professional sports clubs and its associated facilities. It is all seating in the West, East and South Stands with standing in the North Stand. There is a 25-metre swimming pool, gymnasia and activity rooms and a sports hall used by the sports clubs, college and the local community. A synthetic 400-metre (440 yd) running track, covered training facility and field sports area was built for Leigh Harriers and Athletic Club. Amateur rugby league club, Leigh East ARLFC has a clubhouse at the Leigh Sports Village Arena.
[6]
Leigh College occupy a site on the stadium perimeter and share sports and youth facilities. To make the project commercially viable, retail and commercial premises, housing and a hotel were built on the site close to Atherleigh Way.
[6]
Roads on the Sports Village site are named after three local sporting personalities:
Tommy Sale
,
Jimmy Ledgard
and Geoff Turner.
[7]
The roads are Sale Way, home to the stadium, sixth form college and sports centre, Turner Way address of Leigh Harriers Athletics Club, whilst Ledgard Avenue accommodates the new Leigh East clubhouse.
Stadium
[
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]
The stadium in rugby league set up
Two ramp-up events were held during December 2008 to fulfil safety certification requirements. A children's rugby league festival was held on 14 December 2008 as the first event, rescheduled from the previous week because of a frozen pitch.
[8]
After a successful first event, the crowd capacity was set at 4,775. A sell-out crowd of 4,714 saw
Leigh
versus
Salford
on 28 December 2008.
[9]
[10]
Leigh Sports Village was officially opened on Thursday 21 May 2009, by
Queen Elizabeth II
and the
Duke of Edinburgh
.
[11]
Leigh Sports Village was included in the
London 2012
Pre-Games Training Camp Guide. The facility was available for use by competing nations as a training camp before the
London 2012
Olympic Games
. Though officials negotiated with the
Ukrainian
Olympic team, no nation chose to base athletes at Leigh Sports Village.
[12]
On 27 July 2013, the stadium staged its first Rugby League
Challenge Cup
semi-final between Wigan and London Broncos.
On Tuesday 5 November, the stadium hosted the
Rugby League World Cup 2013
Tonga versus Cook Islands tie, which was won by Tonga 22?16 in front of a then stadium record crowd of 10,544.
[13]
This attendance was surpassed on Sunday 11 August when the semi-final of the Challenge Cup saw an attendance of 12,005 witness Castleford defeat Widnes 28?6.
[3]
On Saturday 21 June 2014, Sir
Elton John
and his band played in front of 17,000 fans
[14]
in one of only three announced UK venues for his
Follow the Yellow Brick Road Tour
.
In October 2015, England took on France in a warm-up match before their end-of-year test series against New Zealand.
[15]
Internationals
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]
The stadium was one of the ten venues used to host matches at the
UEFA Women's Euro 2022
. It was used to host
Group C
matches, alongside
Bramall Lane
, and a quarter-final.
[16]
Rugby league
[
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]
The Leigh Sports Village has hosted four
England
internationals,
[17]
in addition to hosting a further five test matches not featuring England.
The first two non-England matches were part of the
2013
and
2017 Rugby League World Cup
. The 2013 game was part of the competition proper and was an inter-group match between
Tonga
and
Cook Islands
on 5 November 2013. The game saw 10,554 in attendance, and Tonga won 22?16. The 2017 game was part of the qualifying stages. The match was between
Italy
and
Russia
on Friday 4 November 2016, with the winner securing the 14th and final berth in the tournament in Australasia. Four hundred and fifty people were in attendance as Italy took the final World Cup spot with a 76?0 hammering.
Leigh Sports Village also hosted three group games in the
2021 Rugby League World Cup
, held in 2022.
Facilities
[
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]
Facilities available at Leigh Sports Village include:
[5]
- A multi-use 12,000-capacity
outdoor stadium
with
Desso GrassMaster
pitch and under-pitch heating
[18]
- Four hospitality suites and 22 corporate boxes
- Leigh Indoor Sports Centre ? A
gymnasium
, nine-court sports hall and 25 m (82 ft) six-lane swimming pool
- A 400-metre running track with a 60 m (200 ft) covered sprinting facility and clubhouse
- Multi-use floodlit 3rd-generation
artificial
and grass pitches
- Sports pavilion
Site users and tenants
[
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]
A
Manchester United W.F.C.
game being played at the Leigh Sports Village
The site is operated by Leigh Sports Village Company on behalf of Wigan Council ? owners of the stadium, athletic stadium and clubhouse, swimming pool and sports centre, rugby league clubhouse and 3G pitches. Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust operate Leigh Indoor Sports Centre. Along with the general public, use of artificial and grass pitches, sports hall, gymnasium and swimming pool, the Leigh Sports Village site has several long-term tenants.
See also
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]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Leigh Sports Village"
.
- ^
a
b
Hall gets the go-ahead for Leigh stadium
[
permanent dead link
]
,
Contract Journal
. Retrieved 5 January 2009.
- ^
a
b
"Widnes Vikings 6?28 Castleford Tigers"
.
BBC Sport
. Archived from
the original
on 3 January 2015
. Retrieved
30 June
2019
.
- ^
"Stadium | Leigh Sports Village"
. Archived from
the original
on 2 April 2015
. Retrieved
31 December
2008
.
- ^
a
b
"Leigh Sports Village ? Wigan Council"
. Archived from
the original
on 22 November 2008.
- ^
a
b
c
Prospectus
(PDF)
, Sport Keighley, archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 6 March 2009
, retrieved
28 October
2011
- ^
"Roads honour for Leigh legends"
. Archived from
the original
on 21 July 2011.
- ^
"A Festival of Rugby ? as Leigh warms up the new stadium"
. Archived from
the original
on 21 July 2011.
- ^
Barker, Neil (28 December 2008).
"Rugby League ? Leigh 6 Salford 26"
.
Manchester Evening News
. Retrieved
31 December
2008
.
- ^
Hulme, Mike (30 December 2008).
"New era for Centurions"
. Leigh Journal. Archived from
the original
on 23 July 2011
. Retrieved
31 December
2008
.
- ^
"Warm Welcome for the Queen in Leigh"
. The Leigh Reporter. 21 May 2009. Archived from
the original
on 25 May 2009
. Retrieved
21 May
2009
.
- ^
"Olympic dreams become reality in Wigan and Leigh"
. Archived from
the original
on 21 July 2011.
- ^
"Rugby League World Cup: Tonga 22-16 Cook Islands"
. BBC. 5 November 2013
. Retrieved
5 November
2013
.
- ^
"Sell-out crowd gathers for Sir Elton John"
.
Leigh Journal
. 23 June 2014.
- ^
"England to face France before New Zealand series"
.
BBC Sport
. 27 April 2015
. Retrieved
29 May
2015
.
- ^
UEFA.com (2 August 2022).
"Event guide: Wigan & Leigh | UEFA Women's EURO 2022"
.
UEFA.com
. Retrieved
2 August
2022
.
- ^
"Leigh Sports Village results @ Rugby League Project"
.
www.rugbyleagueproject.org
. Retrieved
25 September
2023
.
- ^
"Facilities"
. Archived from
the original
on 11 November 2014
. Retrieved
11 November
2014
.
- ^
About us
, Leigh Harriers Athletic Club, archived from
the original
on 15 September 2013
, retrieved
12 August
2013
- ^
"Park Inn, Leigh sold to Kro Hotels"
. Manchester Evening News. 1 July 2014.
- ^
"Leigh Athletic F.C."
www.leighathleticfc.co.uk
. 14 July 2014. Archived from
the original
on 14 July 2014.
- ^
Marshall, Adam (23 May 2014).
"Manchester United Under-21 fixtures 2014/15"
.
ManUtd.com
. Manchester United. Archived from
the original
on 4 March 2016
. Retrieved
17 August
2016
.
- ^
"Manchester United Women announce ticket information for the new season"
.
manutd.com
. Retrieved
27 July
2018
.
External links
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Wheelchair
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*unmarked: Men's RLWC only, ‡: Men's and Women's RLWC, †: Women's RLWC only
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