Surrey Sports Park celebrates first year anniversary

Tuesday 19 April 2011

A remarkable first year has seen over 800,000 people visit the new University of Surrey owned centre, with the park hosting a number of high profile sporting teams and events.

New sports facilities at the University has also seen a phenomenal improvement in student sport, with Surrey teams achieving their highest ever British University College Sport total and league position with some incredible team performances.

Over the past twelve months, Surrey Sports Park has played home to a host of local professional sports teams, including Guildford Heat basketball team, Surrey Storm netball team and Harlequins rugby union team. Over 30 live Heat basketball and Storm netball matches have been played at the park attracting crowds of up to 1000 spectators, with five games shown live on Sky Sports.

Last summer saw women’s rugby teams and fans from twelve nations descend on Surrey Sport Park for the IRB Women’s Rugby World Cup 2010, a 17-day international tournament which was attended by over 30,000 fans and broadcast around the world in 127 territories to a potential audience of 227 million homes.

Aside from the Women’s Rugby World Cup, the sports park also helped Samoa and the England RFU men’s senior team in their preparation for their championship winning Six Nations campaign, providing pre-match training facilities throughout the Six Nations period.

The last year has also seen the centre host the Great Britain Women’s basketball team, the FA Futsal Grand Finals, National Water Polo Championships, Football League exit trials, the FA Women’s U23 team and the Jordan Brand Classic International basketball tour. In partnership with England Squash and Racketball, the park is also now the London and South East Centre for Squash and Racketball, and has already hosted the Premier League Squash final alongside a series of junior national championships.

More locally, in partnership with Active Surrey and other local facilities, Surrey Sports Park hosted the 2010 Surrey Youth Games. Local clubs have also benefited from the centre’s new facilities in the past year, with Guildford City Swimming Club, Clandon Badminton Club and many more training and playing at the site. The park has also become a Centre of Excellence of League Two football club Aldershot Town FC.

In the community, over 80 local primary and secondary schools have taken part in activities at the park, which has seen over 20,000 young people use the centre since opening. Over 300 juniors take part in learn to swim courses on a weekly basis alongside a plethora of adult and junior classes, courses and drop-in taster or coaching sports sessions. Open to non-members and 3000 members strong, it has developed into a thriving, sporting hub for many people, providing opportunities for people to lead more active, healthy and enjoyable lifestyles.

With the countdown now underway to the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, the impressive facilities at Surrey Sports Park, in partnership with Surrey 2012, have attracted interest from around the world, with Antigua and Barbuda, Nigeria and more recently Singapore having all agreed to bring their athletes to Surrey Sports Park for pre-games training camps.

Upon reaching this historic landmark for Surrey Sports Park, new Chief Executive Paul Blanchard, said, “In just a year, Surrey Sports Park has significantly raised the profile of the University of Surrey, Guildford and the wider county of Surrey by attracting all these major events to the region and will continue to do so in the future. It is a truly remarkable facility that combines students, members and elite teams so effectively, and we are looking forward to further successes.”

Media Enquiries

Peter La, Press Office at the University of Surrey, Tel: +44 (0)1483 689191, or Email mediarelations@surrey.ac.uk