Sandwell Aquatics Centre is an indoor facility located in Londonderry,

Smethwick Smethwick () is an industrial town in the Sandwell district, in the county of the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It lies west of Birmingham city centre. Historically it was in Staffordshire and then Worcestershire before bei ...

, West Midlands,

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It contains an

Olympic-size swimming pool An Olympic-size swimming pool is a swimming pool which conforms to the regulations for length, breadth, and depth made by World Aquatics (formerly FINA) for swimming at the Summer Olympics and the swimming events at the World Aquatics Champions ...

(one of only two in the

West Midlands region The West Midlands is one of nine official regions of England at the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, first level of International Territorial Level for Statistics, statistical purposes. It covers the western half of the area known tradit ...

), a 10-metre diving board with 25-metre pool (the only one in the whole of the

Midlands The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...

), a community swimming pool and permanent seating for 1,000 spectators with an additional 4,000 seats during the Games. Construction began in January 2020 and opened on 12 April 2022 to mark 100 days until the start of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. The centre was initially used for the

2022 Commonwealth Games The 2022 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXII Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Birmingham 2022, were an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth of Nations that took place in Birmingham, England betw ...

and was the only venue constructed for the games. After the games, the centre is scheduled to be redeveloped and will officially open for public use in May 2023 when it will be operated by the Sandwell Leisure Trust. During the redevelopment, seating used for the Games will be removed and two 4-court

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

s, a 108-station

gym A gym, short for gymnasium (: gymnasiums or gymnasia), is an indoor venue for exercise and sports. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasion". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learn ...

, a 28-station ladies-only gym, three activity studios, an

indoor cycling Indoor cycling, often called spinning, is a form of exercise with classes focusing on endurance, strength, intervals, high intensity (race days) and recovery, and involves using a special stationary exercise bicycle with a weighted flywheel in a c ...

studio, a

sauna A sauna (, ) is a room or building designed as a place to experience dry or wet heat sessions or an establishment with one or more of these facilities. The steam and high heat make the bathers perspire. A thermometer in a sauna is used to meas ...

, a

steam room A steam bath is a steam-filled room or steam-filled cabinet designed for the purpose of relaxation and holistic treatment. Steam baths have been formally recognized since ancient Greek and Roman Empire, Roman times, yet variations can be found t ...

, a

football pitch A football pitch or soccer field is the playing surface for the game of association football. Its dimensions and markings are defined by Law 1 of the Laws of the Game (association football), Laws of the Game, "The Field of Play". The pitch is ty ...

with changing facilities, a dry diving area, an

urban park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a city park, municipal park (North America), public park, public open space, or municipal gardens (United Kingdom, UK), is a park or botanical garden in cities, densely populated suburbia and oth ...

and

children's playground A playground, playpark, or play area is a place designed to provide an environment for children that facilitates play, typically outdoors. While a playground is usually designed for children, some are designed for other age groups, or people wi ...

, and

café A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café (), is an establishment that serves various types of coffee, espresso, latte, americano and cappuccino, among other hot beverages. Many coffeehouses in West Asia offer ''shisha'' (actually called ''nargi ...

will be created. Funding for the centre comes from several sources.

Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council, or Sandwell Council, is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell in the West Midlands, England. It is a metropolitan borough council and provides the majority of local government servic ...

is contributing £27 million, with £38.5 million coming from the overall Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games budget. A further £7.6 million is from

Sport England Sport England is a non-departmental public body under the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Its role is to build the foundations of a community sport system by working with national governing bodies of sport, and other funded partners, ...

, Black Country LEP, Sandwell Leisure Trust (SLT) and

University of Wolverhampton The University of Wolverhampton is a public university in Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, England, located on four campuses across the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, Shropshire and Staffordshire. Originally founded in 1827 as the Wolverham ...

. The venue hosted its first major event since the Commonwealth Games on 4 and 5 November 2023, the

Swim England Swim England is the national governing body for swimming, Diving (sport), diving, water polo, open water swimming, and synchronised swimming in England. It forms part of Aquatics GB, a federation of the national governing bodies of England, Scot ...

West Midlands Winter Championships. Then on 18 May 2024, the pool hosted its first

underwater hockey Underwater hockey (UWH), also known as Octopush in the United Kingdom, is a globally played limited-contact sport in which two teams compete to manoeuvre a puck across the bottom of a swimming pool into the opposing team's goal by propelling ...

tournament.

References

External links

Aquatics Centre page on the Council websiteBirmingham 2022 venues guide
Diving at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Smethwick Swimming at the 2022 Commonwealth Games Swimming venues in England 2022 Commonwealth Games venues University of Wolverhampton University sports venues in the United Kingdom University swimming in the United Kingdom {{WestMidlands-struct-stub

See also

References

External links