A team led by sports venue specialists Sport Concepts, with 3DReid as delivery architects and Halcrow Yolles and Arup as engineers, have revealed details of their proposals for a National Indoor Sports Arena and Velodrome that have helped Glasgow City Council and the Scotland 2014 Commonwealth Games Committee clinch the staging of the prestigious event.

The scheme was designed to form the centrepiece to Glasgow’s bid and is the cornerstone of the Council’s major regeneration plans for a previously brownfield industrial area. The project is unique in that it provides two distinctly separate arenas under one roof. This allows great flexibility and the ability to host a large variety of indoor sports. These include all of the following in both training and competition mode: athletics, artistic cycling, badminton, basketball, boxing, cycling, gymnastics, hockey, judo, karate, tae kwon do, netball, squash, table tennis, tennis, weightlifting and wrestling.

The team is working with specialist velodrome and athletics track designers and seating suppliers to create the most effective and flexible solution. For example, a state of the art hydraulic track lies flat on the arena floor when not in use and telescopic seating can be configured in a variety of ways to allow good spectator sightlines for each sport.

The arena and velodrome are linked by a 34m x 80m connecting building, which includes circulation spaces, as wells as offices for the National Sport Federations. These will be a mix of cellular and open plan and also provide conferencing facilities, function spaces and control rooms for the arenas. Economies have been made in the design by combining building elements. Shared space includes the changing rooms, plant, entrances, concourse, loading and a cafeteria.

Mike Lischer at Sport Concepts said:– “This project is a fantastic opportunity to create a inclusive landmark sports facility for athletes and the community alike, The project will kick start the regeneration of an urban brown field site in a deprived suburb of Glasgow.”

Gordon McGhie, Director at 3DReid in Glasgow said: – “We are delighted to be collaborating with Sport Concepts on such a prestigious project, which is literally on the doorstep for many of us.”

Other key facts: ⎜ 200m athletics track with 5,000 spectators ⎜ 250m velodrome track with 2,000 spectators expandable to 4,000 ⎜ 1km outdoor track ⎜ 3 community 5 a-side football pitches ⎜ 3 indoor basketball courts ⎜ A dance hall ⎜ A gymnasium