Solent Arena ( ) was an

indoor arena An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators ...

, in

Fareham Fareham ( ) is a market town at the north-west tip of Portsmouth Harbour, between the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton in south east Hampshire, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Fareham. It was historically an important manufact ...

, Hampshire. It was located alongside River Wallington by the M27 motorway.

History

The Solent Arena project was launched by Salmiakki CIC, a non-profit community sports organisation, in July 2012 with a view to build a purpose-built arena for non-mainstream and disabled sports on the English south coast. Location search included a wide area along the M27 corridor from Portsmouth to Southampton. The Fareham Borough Council was keen to attract the stadium into the borough due to the documented shortfall in indoor sports provision in the area and agreed to finance the project with a 50% capital cost contribution. Inline hockey was first played in the building in July 2013 by members of the Fareham Wildcats Roller Hockey Club, although the building was still unfinished. The rink closed its doors in October 2015 after falling into financial difficulty, when the rink was dismantled and relocated to its new home as the Bordon Roller Rink.

Sporting events

The main tenant of Solent Arena was the British Rink Hockey Association, Britain's oldest inline hockey league founded in 1983. BRHA team training and game slots took up approximately half of the arena's operational hours. The arena was also home to Lemon Hockey tournaments and there was a Guinness Book of World Records attempt at the longest inline hockey game in the world on 26–27 October 2013. In addition to inline hockey, the arena was home to

floorball Floorball is a type of floor hockey with five players and a goalkeeper in each team. Men and women play indoors with sticks and a plastic ball with holes. Matches are played in three twenty-minute periods. The sport of bandy also played a role ...

, box lacrosse and

roller derby Roller derby is a roller skating contact sport played by two teams of fifteen members. Roller derby is played by approximately 1,250 amateur leagues worldwide, mostly in the United States. Game play consists of a series of short scrimmages (jam ...

Transport

Solent Arena was well served by the major road and rail networks. The M27 motorway passes just a few hundred metres from the arena, and was the main traffic artery into and out of the arena. It provided easy access to both Portsmouth and Southampton, and from there to London via the M3 and

A3(M) The A3, known as the Portsmouth Road or London Road in sections, is a major road connecting the City of London and Portsmouth passing close to Kingston upon Thames, Guildford, Haslemere and Petersfield. For much of its length, it is classified ...

. The A27 was the original route along the south coast before the building of the M27, and runs from

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

to Southampton, passing through between the arena and Fareham Town Centre. The A32 gives access to

Gosport Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan borough on the south coast of Hampshire, South East England. At the 2011 Census, its population was 82,662. Gosport is situated on a peninsula on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour, opposite t ...

and Wickham, and then through the picturesque Meon Valley to Alton.

Fareham railway station Fareham railway station is on the West Coastway Line situated about from the town of Fareham in Hampshire, England. It is down the line from . History Fareham station was first opened by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) in 1841 ...

is on the West Coastway Line, with regular services to Portsmouth, Southampton, Cardiff and London. Bus transport was provided by First Hampshire & Dorset, which runs nearly all bus routes in the area. There were two bus stops within a couple of minutes walk from the arena on Broadcut and North Wallington. The onsite parking facility was partly shared with the Fareham Industrial Estate, essentially being the open air surface parking surrounding the eastern flank of Solent Arena. There was disabled parking available onsite, at the main car park nearest to the arena entrance. Car parking at the arena was free of charge to arena visitors.

References

External links

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