Capturing Cardiff: The International Sports Village

[Dan O'Brien]

The first part of Cardiff’s International Sports Village opens in January, but the rest of the Olympic-standard project might have to be put on hold due to a lack of funding.

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The new competition pool will be the only one in Cardiff to meet the international standard length – 50 metres, rather than the regular 25 - and will bring Cardiff back as a destination city for national and international swimming competitions.

There hasn’t been an international-standard pool here since 1998, when the old Wales Empire Pool was knocked down to make room for the Millennium Stadium development.

Wales’ current 50-metre national pool is based in Swansea, but the title will be brought back to Cardiff in the New Year with the Bay’s new venue.

As well as the main pool, it’ll also have a 25m leisure pool with water flume rides and something called a ‘space bowl’, which is apparently like going down a giant plug hole. The building will also house a spa therapy centre, and a fully equipped gym.

Kevin Doyle has been managing the whole sports village development, and said the facilities won’t cost any more to use than the rest of the leisure centres in the city. You can also use the Stretch Card – Cardiff Council’s leisure discount card for local residents.

This is an important aspect of the whole project, according to Mr Doyle, because when projects like this are built to regenerate poorer run-down areas, the local people often can’t afford to use the brand new facilities because they’re targeted at tourists. Not so in this case: because of the Stretch discount, it will actually be cheaper for local people to use the facilities than people from outside Cardiff.

Of course though, to bring in the anticipated £270 million per year, the International Sports Village has got to be just that: truly international in its appeal. A large part of this will be the unique attraction of the Olympic Canoe Slalom Centre.

If you take a look at the artist’s impression, it is planned to be built across the road from the new pool, and will feature a man-made slalom course where the speed of the rapids can be automatically controlled to suit the people using it.

This means it will be accessible for complete beginners and disabled users – especially as the conveyor belt which takes you back to the top means there’s no getting out and carrying involved – but also for international competitions.

In fact, the course is even being considered by the organisers of the London 2012 Olympics to be used as the canoe venue for the games – meaning potentially 36 Olympic medals could be presented in Cardiff.

This, however, all depends on it actually being built.

The Canoe Slalom Centre was expected to be finished in time for the 2012 Games, but it could look like this for a while longer:

Looking at more photos of the site, you can see the grand visions of the Artist's Impressions are still a long way off.

Its being funded by a joint effort between Cardiff Council’s Harbour Authority, the Welsh Assembly Government, the Welsh Canoe Association and the Lottery Fund. But, the Assembly Government’s contribution is now in doubt.

Cardiff Council are hoping to encourage the Government to get fully behind the project, but may have to look for other sources to foot the bill.

In November the Assembly Government agreed to pay £8.7 million of the total £14 million, but after budget cuts across Wales and investment being demanded outside the capital they’re not sure where this money is going to come from.

Until its secured, the building work can’t even start despite all the plans and the contractors being ready to go, according to Project Manager Mr Doyle.

The longer this is left, the less likely it becomes that the venue will be ready for the Olympic games – and in turn it becomes more difficult to attract the necessary number of visitors to the Sports Village to generate enough money to make it profitable.

The value of the project has already been potentially damaged after plans to build a super-Casino on the site fell through. This came after the British Government’s plans to set up super Casinos across the country were rejected by the House of Lords earlier this year.

Despite this, however, Mr Doyle is confident the whole Bay-side development will be worth between £700 million and just over £1 billion pounds when its finished in 2015, if all goes to plan.

Once the Sports Village’s new pool and leisure centre opens in January, the next stage for the developers is a venue that’s become known as the ‘Snow Box’.

It’ll replace the Temporary Ice Rink on the site at the moment, to become the competition venue for the Cardiff Devils team.

Facilities for indoor skiing and snowboarding are also being built in the Snow Box, which is expected to be completed within the next two years.

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[matthew yeomans]

Good reporting and well written. Audio idea is great but too long I suspect to keep an audience engaged. Nevertheless well put together ....despite your Ning woes!