The Commonwealth Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, known for sponsorship reasons as the Emirates Arena, is an

indoor arena An arena is a large enclosed venue, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, Music, musical performances or Sport, sporting events. It comprises a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for specta ...

and

velodrome A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights. The straights transition to the circular turn through a moderate easement ...

Dalmarnock Dalmarnock (, ) is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated east of the city centre, directly north of the River Clyde opposite the town of Rutherglen. It is also bounded by the Glasgow neighbourhoods of Parkhead to the north-e ...

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

, Scotland. Built for the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games (), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014 (; ), were an international multi-sport event celebrated in the tradition of the Commonwealth Games as governed by the Commonwea ...

, these venues hosted the badminton and

track cycling Track cycling is a Cycle sport, bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using purpose-designed track bicycles. History Track cycling has been around since at least 1870. When track cycling was in its i ...

events. Situated opposite

Celtic Park Celtic Park is a Soccer-specific stadium, football stadium and the home of Scottish Premiership team Celtic F.C., Celtic, in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, Scotland. With a capacity of 60,832, it is the largest List of football stadiums in Sco ...

in the East End of Glasgow, the complex is also the headquarters of

Scottish Cycling Scottish Cycling, legally the Scottish Cyclists' Union (SCU), is the governing body for cycle sport in Scotland and is part of British Cycling, the national governing body in Britain. Scottish Cycling is currently located in the Sir Chris Hoy ...

History

It was built on a site at a cost of £113 million. The construction work took place between 2009 and 2012. The venue opened in October 2012. In September 2017, neighbours

Celtic F.C. The Celtic Football Club, commonly known as Celtic (), is a professional Association football, football club in Glasgow, Scotland. The team competes in the Scottish Premiership, the top division of Scottish football league system, Scottish ...

had plans approved for the construction of a hotel complex within their land, situated directly across the road from the arena and velodrome.

Indoor arena

The Indoor Arena has a capacity of 6,500 and during the Commonwealth Games it had twelve badminton courts in three indoor sports halls. The arena has a hydraulically lifted 200m indoor

running track An all-weather running track is a rubberized, artificial running surface for track and field athletics. It provides a consistent surface for competitors to test their athletic ability unencumbered by adverse weather conditions. Historically, v ...

that hosted the

Aviva International Match The Sainsbury's International Match, formerly known as the Aviva International Match, was an annual indoor track and field athletics meeting which takes place in late January in Glasgow, Scotland. The televised competition is the first major ind ...

, which will move from

Kelvin Hall The Kelvin Hall, located on Argyle Street in the Yorkhill area of Glasgow, Scotland, is one of the largest exhibition centres in Britain and now a mixed-use arts and sports venue that opened as an exhibition venue in 1927. It has also been ...

. At the start of the

2012–13 British Basketball League season The 2012–13 BBL season was the 26th campaign of the British Basketball League since the league's establishment in 1987. The season featured 12 teams from across England and Scotland including a new entrant, the reformed Manchester Giants, who ...

the

Glasgow Rocks The Caledonia Gladiators are a Scottish professional basketball club based in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire and are the only Scotland-based team in Super League Basketball, the top tier of domestic basketball in the United Kingdom. Founde ...

moved from the Kelvin Hall to the new arena, with their opening game against traditional arch-rivals

Newcastle Eagles The Newcastle Eagles are a professional basketball club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. They play in Super League Basketball, the top-tier professional basketball league in Britain for men and women, and the European North Basketball Leag ...

selling out. With 1,500 extra floor seats around the arena's running track, it became the largest arena of any club in the

British Basketball League The British Basketball League (BBL) was a men's professional basketball sports league, league in Great Britain. Since its establishment in 1987 the BBL represented the highest level of basketball competition within the United Kingdom. The orga ...

at the time, and on 8 November 2012 it was announced by the League that the arena would become the venue for the final of the BBL Trophy. In 2015 the

Great Britain Davis Cup team The Great Britain Davis Cup team has represented the United Kingdom internationally since 1900 in the Davis Cup. Organised by the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), it is one of the 50 members of International Tennis Federation's European associatio ...

played the United States in the first round and Australia in the semi-final stage at the

2015 Davis Cup The 2015 Davis Cup was the 104th edition of the Davis Cup, a tournament between national teams in men's tennis. It was sponsored by BNP Paribas. Great Britain Davis Cup team, Great Britain won their tenth title (their first since 1936 Davis Cu ...

, featuring top British player and world number three

Andy Murray Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British former professional tennis player and coach. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professio ...

. The arena capacity was expanded to 8,200 for the semi-final to comply with requirements for the Davis Cup. Great Britain played again at the arena for the

2016 Davis Cup The 2016 Davis Cup was the 105th edition of the Davis Cup, a tournament between national teams in men's tennis. It was sponsored by BNP Paribas. From this season's tournament the deciding set of each match would be settled by a tiebreak at 6 game ...

semifinals. The arena was the main venue for the

2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships The 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships was held between 1 and 3 March 2019 at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, Scotland. This was the second time this event was held in the city after the 1990 edition and the third time it was held in the ...

and the

2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships The 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships was the 19th edition of the international indoor track and field competition, organised by the World Athletics. The event was held between 1–3 March at the Commonwealth Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velod ...

Velodrome

The Velodrome has a 250-metre indoor track with a capacity of 2,500 (2,000 seated), expanding to 4,500 (4,000 seated) with temporary seating during the Games. The Velodrome is named after Olympic and

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth ...

gold-medal winning

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

cyclist

Sir Chris Hoy Sir Christopher Andrew Hoy (born 23 March 1976) is a former Track cycling, track cyclist and racing driver from Scotland who represented Great Britain at the Olympics, Great Britain at the Olympic Games, Olympic and World Championships and Scot ...

, who was, at the time, Britain's most successful Olympic athlete. It opened in October 2012, and hosted a round of the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

UCI Track Cycling World Cup The UCI Track Cycling World Cup (formerly known as the UCI Track Cycling World Cup Classics) was a multi race tournament held over a track cycling season - usually between October and February. Each series is divided into several rounds, each held ...

series In August 2013, it hosted the 2013 UCI Juniors Track World Championships. It was the venue for the

. The velodrome hosted the

European Track Cycling Championships The European Track Cycling Championships are a set of elite level competition events held annually for the various disciplines and distances in track cycling, exclusively for European cyclists, and regulated by the European Cycling Union (UEC ...

, which was part of the first European Sports Championships. The arena has parking for 416 cars and 26 disabled bays. Overflow parking is available at Celtic Park.

References

External links

Official website
*
Fly-through video
{{Indoor arenas UK Cycle racing in Scotland Sports venues in Glasgow Velodromes in Scotland Indoor arenas in Scotland Parkhead Bridgeton–Calton–Dalmarnock 2014 Commonwealth Games venues Sports venues completed in 2012 2012 establishments in Scotland Basketball venues in Scotland Badminton venues Badminton in Scotland 2018 European Championships venues 2017 BWF World Championships Caledonia Gladiators 2015 Davis Cup 2016 Davis Cup 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships 2018 UEC European Track Championships Netball venues in Scotland

History

Indoor arena

Velodrome

See also

References

External links