The Alan Higgs Centre, opened in September 2004, is a

leisure centre A leisure centre in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia (also called aquatic centres), Singapore and Canada is a purpose-built building or site, usually owned and operated by the city, borough council or municipal district council, where people ...

situated in about grounds near to the

River Sowe The River Sowe is a river in Warwickshire and West Midlands, England. It is a tributary of the River Avon, and flows into it just south of Stoneleigh about 5 miles (8 km) south of Coventry. It is about long. The Sowe rises in Bedworth ...

, on Allard Way in the southeast of

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It was designed by

RHWL RHWL Architects (originally Renton Howard Wood Levin Architects) was a British architecture practice based in London, Berlin and Qatar. It was established by Andrew Renton, Peter Howard, Humphrey Wood and Gerald Levin following the establishment of ...

architects, and built by

Galliford Try Galliford Try plc is a British construction company based in Leicester, England. It was created through a merger in 2000 of two businesses: Try Group, founded in 1908 in London, and Galliford, founded in 1916. Formerly involved in house-buildi ...

plc at a cost of about £8 million to their client and the current owner, the Alan Higgs Centre Trust. The funds were provided by the Alan Edward Higgs Charity. In February 2020, the centre received some serious investment from Coventry City Council and Sport England.£13.5m was spent renovating the gym, sauna, steam rooms, jacuzzi, building a new indoor 50m pool and relocating the indoor 3G pitch. The 50m pools floor can be raised to deck level and dropped to 2 metres while also being able to be split in half with an immersible boom. The renovated gym area boasts 100 fitness stations, functional training area and indoor group cycling room that overlooks the 50m pool.

History

The

judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponi ...

and

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

competitions of the 2007

UK School Games The School Games (formerly known as UK School Games) is an annual sporting competition for elite school-age athletes in the United Kingdom that began in 2006. The event was based on an Olympic Games model, with multiple sports events held across a ...

were held in The Alan Higgs Centre, being one of the venues for the games which were held in the Coventry from 23 to 26 August 2007. In August 2013, non-league

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team

Coventry United Coventry United Football Club is an English association football club based in Coventry in the West Midlands. The team competes in the , the 9th tier of English football and are managed by Carl Nolan The club was founded in 2013 by chairman J ...

announced that The Alan Higgs Centre would be their new home ground. On 12 February 2019, a new dome opened. In February 2020 a new

Olympic-sized swimming pool An Olympic-size swimming pool conforms to regulated dimensions that are large enough for international competition. This type of swimming pool is used in the Olympic Games, where the race course is in length, typically referred to as "long cou ...

at the Alan Higgs Centre opened, replacing the one at the defunct Coventry Sports & Leisure Centre. The new pool facilities include a hot tub, a

sauna A sauna (, ), or sudatory, is a small 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 ...

, and seating for 500 people.

Facilities

The

Coventry City Football Club Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed t ...

's Academy is based at The Alan Higgs Centre. There are four outdoor grass football pitches, a

synthetic Synthetic things are composed of multiple parts, often with the implication that they are artificial. In particular, 'synthetic' may refer to: Science * Synthetic chemical or compound, produced by the process of chemical synthesis * Synthetic o ...

indoor pitch, and a synthetic floodlit outdoor pitch. It is also a venue for county

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

games, and there is a skateboard area.

References

Sports venues in Coventry Sports venues completed in 2004 {{England-sports-venue-stub