New era for Meadowbank Stadium

Edinburgh’s Meadowbank Stadium, which has hosted two Commonwealth Games events, is to close in December marking the start of major redevelopment plans to create a new sports centre.

The new Meadowbank is due to open by Easter 2020 and work will start next year and a Fireworks Concert in November will be the last major public event at the stadium.

Councillor Ian Campbell, vice-convener of culture and communities for the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “This is the start of a major redevelopment to support physical activity, health and well-being in Edinburgh for generations to come.

“The facility mix has been revisited, and now incorporates improved indoor athletics facilities in line with feedback from individual users and sports clubs.”

He added: “Meadowbank has been at the heart of sport in Edinburgh for almost half a century.

“We now need this new-look venue to greatly support physical activity in Edinburgh for at least the next 50 years to come, while catering for the city’s ever demanding housing needs.”

The new sports centre is set to include an outdoor athletics track with a 500-seat stand, two multi-sport games halls, three fitness studio, a gym, a gymnastics hall, two squash courts, a combat studio for martial arts, a boxing gym with ring, a 60m, six-lane indoor athletics track and jumps space, an outdoor throwing area, two FIFA standard 3G (all weather) pitches, one which will be in the centre of the athletics track, a cafe and meeting rooms.

The new centre will be partly funded by residential and commercial development on parts of the existing site that are not required for the new sports complex.

This will include development of affordable and low cost housing through the council’s 21st Century Homes Programme.