Leigh Sports Village is an £83 million multi-use sports,
retail and housing development in

Leigh, Greater Manchester Leigh is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, on low-lying land northwest of Chat Moss. Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic county of Lancashire, Leigh was originally the cen ...

, England. The centrepiece of the development is a 12,000-capacity stadium which is home to professional rugby league team

Leigh Leopards The Leigh Leopards are a professional rugby league club based in Leigh, Greater Manchester, England, who compete in the Betfred Super League. The club was founded in 1878, and is one of the original twenty-two clubs that formed the Northern R ...

, Manchester United's under-19 and under-23 teams, and Manchester United W.F.C. The complex also plays host to amateur rugby league club

Leigh East Leigh East ARLFC is an amateur rugby league team from Leigh, a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, in Greater Manchester, England. They play in the National Conference League. They play their home matches at Leigh Sports Village ...

and amateur athletics club Leigh Harriers, who both occupy dedicated facilities on the site. Other facilities on site include the Leigh campus of

Wigan and Leigh College Wigan & Leigh College is a state General Further and Higher Education College based at five locations in the towns of Wigan and Leigh in Greater Manchester, England, United Kingdom. Currently, there are 500 staff members employed, and more than 8 ...

, Leigh Sports Centre, which includes a gym, multi-use sports hall and swimming pool, a

Holiday Inn Express Holiday Inn Express is a mid-priced hotel chain within the InterContinental Hotels Group family of brands. Originally founded as an "express" hotel, their focus is on offering limited services at a reasonable price. Standard amenities lean tow ...

hotel, a

Morrisons Wm Morrison Supermarkets, trading as Morrisons, is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Scotland, as well as one in Gibraltar. The company is headqua ...

supermarket and the Whistling Wren pub. During 2022, it hosted matches in the

UEFA Women's Euro 2022 The 2022 UEFA European Women's Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Women's Euro 2022 or simply Euro 2022, was the 13th edition of the UEFA Women's Championship, the quadrennial international football championship organised by UEF ...

Background

Leigh Sports Village stadium under construction

Leigh Sports Village is a development southwest of Leigh town centre, on the south side of the Leigh arm of the

Leeds and Liverpool Canal The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is a canal in Northern England, linking the cities of Leeds and Liverpool. Over a distance of , crossing the Pennines, and including 91 locks on the main line. The Leeds and Liverpool Canal has several small branc ...

, close to

Pennington Flash Country Park Pennington Flash Country Park is a country park located between Lowton and Leigh in Greater Manchester, England. History A flash is a water-filled hollow formed by subsidence. Pennington Flash is a lake created at the turn of the 20th cen ...

and accessed from the A579, Atherleigh Way and by pedestrian routes from the town and surrounding area. It is also close to the A580 "East Lancashire Road". The scheme was initially developed to contribute to the regeneration of Leigh and provide modern facilities for local sports clubs, schools and the local community. The main focus of the sports village is the stadium built for local professional sports clubs and its associated facilities. It is all seating in the West, East and South Stands with standing in the North Stand. There is a 25-metre swimming pool, gymnasia and activity rooms and a sports hall used by the sports clubs, college and the local community. A synthetic running track, covered training facility and field sports area was built for Leigh Harriers and Athletic Club. Amateur rugby league club, Leigh East ARLFC has a clubhouse at the Leigh Sports Village Arena. Leigh College occupy a site on the stadium perimeter and share sports and youth facilities. To make the project commercially viable, retail and commercial premises, housing and a hotel were built on the site close to Atherleigh Way. Roads on the Sports Village site are named after three local sporting personalities: Tommy Sale,

Jimmy Ledgard James "Jim"/"Jimmy" Ledgard (9 June 1922 – 26 January 2007) was an English rugby union and World Cup winning professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, and coached rugby league in the 1960s. He played club l ...

and Geoff Turner.Roads honour for Leigh legends
The roads are Sale Way, home to the stadium, sixth form college and sports centre, Turner Way address of Leigh Harriers Athletics Club, whilst Ledgard Avenue accommodates the new Leigh East clubhouse.

Stadium

Leigh Sports Village, home of Leigh Centurions - geograph

Two ramp-up events were held during December 2008 to fulfil safety certification requirements. A children's rugby league festival was held on 14 December 2008 as the first event, rescheduled from the previous week because of a frozen pitch. After a successful first event, the crowd capacity was set at 4,775. A sell-out crowd of 4,714 saw

Leigh Leigh may refer to: Places In England Pronounced : * Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan ** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency) * Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Pronounced : * Leigh, Dorset * Leigh, Gloucestershire * Leigh, Kent * Leigh, Staf ...

versus

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

on 28 December 2008. Leigh Sports Village was officially opened on Thursday 21 May 2009, by

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

and the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produc ...

. Leigh Sports Village was included in the

London 2012 The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

Pre-Games Training Camp Guide. The facility was available for use by competing nations as a training camp before the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

. Though officials negotiated with the

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

Olympic team, no nation chose to base athletes at Leigh Sports Village.Olympic dreams become reality in Wigan and Leigh
On 27 July 2013, the stadium staged its first Rugby League

Challenge Cup The Challenge Cup is a knockout rugby league cup competition organised by the Rugby Football League, held annually since 1896, with the exception of 1915–1919 and 1939–1940, due to World War I and World War II respectively. It involves am ...

semi-final between Wigan and London Broncos. On Tuesday 5 November, the stadium hosted the Rugby League World Cup 2013 Tonga versus Cook Islands tie, which was won by Tonga 22–16 in front of a then stadium record crowd of 10,544. This attendance was surpassed on Sunday 11 August when the semi-final of the Challenge Cup saw an attendance of 12,005 witness Castleford defeat Widnes 28–6. On Saturday 21 June 2014, Sir

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

and his band played in front of 17,000 fans in one of only three announced UK venues for his

Follow the Yellow Brick Road Tour Follow the Yellow Brick Road Tour was a concert tour by English musician Elton John taking place in North America and Europe in promotion of the 40th anniversary re-release of 1973's ''Goodbye Yellow Brick Road''. Background The tour to suppo ...

. In October 2015, England took on France in a warm-up match before their end-of-year test series against New Zealand.

UEFA Women's Euro 2022

The stadium was one of the ten venues used to host matches at the

. It was used to host

Group C Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for touring cars and ''Group B'' for GTs. It was designed to replace both Group 5 special production cars (closed top touri ...

matches, alongside

Bramall Lane Bramall Lane is a association football, football stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which is the home of Sheffield United F.C., Sheffield United. The stadium was originally a cricket ground, built on a road named after the Bramal ...

, and a quarter-final.

Rugby league test matches

The Leigh Sports Village has hosted four

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 ...

internationals, in addition to hosting a further two test matches not featuring England. The two non-England matches were part of the

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

and

2017 Rugby League World Cup The 2017 Rugby League World Cup was the fifteenth staging of the Rugby League World Cup tournament and took place in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea between 27 October and 2 December 2017. The tournament featured the national teams ...

. The 2013 game was part of the competition proper and was an inter-group match between

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

and

Cook Islands ) , image_map = Cook Islands on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , capital = Avarua , coordinates = , largest_city = Avarua , official_languages = , lan ...

on 5 November 2013. The game saw 10,554 in attendance, and Tonga won 22–16. The 2017 game was part of the qualifying stages. The match was between

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

on Friday 4 November 2016, with the winner securing the 14th and final berth in the tournament in Australasia. Four hundred and fifty people were in attendance as Italy took the final World Cup spot with a 76–0 hammering. In addition to these games, on 29 January 2019, it was announced that the Leigh Sports Village would host three group games in the

2021 Rugby League World Cup The 2021 Rugby League World Cup (RLWC2021) was a collection of world cups in the sport of rugby league, held in England from 15 October to 19 November 2022. England won hosting rights for the competition on 27 October 2016. The bid received £2 ...

Facilities

Facilities available at Leigh Sports Village include: * A multi-use 12,000-capacity outdoor stadium with

Desso GrassMaster GrassMaster is a hybrid grass sports playing field surface composed of natural grass combined with artificial fibres. The method was developed and patented by Desso Sports from the Netherlands in 1993. This hybrid grass system is now marketed an ...

pitch and under-pitch heating * Four hospitality suites and 22 corporate boxes * Leigh Indoor Sports Centre – A

gym A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is an indoor location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek term " gymnasium". They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centres, and as activity and learning spaces in educational ins ...

nasium, nine-court sports hall and six-lane swimming pool * A 400-metre running track with a covered sprinting facility and clubhouse * Multi-use floodlit 3rd-generation

artificial Artificiality (the state of being artificial or manmade) is the state of being the product of intentional human manufacture, rather than occurring naturally through processes not involving or requiring human activity. Connotations Artificiality ...

and grass pitches * Sports pavilion

Site users and tenants

The site is operated by Leigh Sports Village Company on behalf of Wigan Council – owners of the stadium, athletic stadium and clubhouse, swimming pool and sports centre, rugby league clubhouse and 3G pitches. Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust operate Leigh Indoor Sports Centre. Along with the general public, use of artificial and grass pitches, sports hall, gymnasium and swimming pool, the Leigh Sports Village site has several long-term tenants. *

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

club are tenants at the stadium. * Leigh Harriers Athletic Club are tenants of the athletics facilities. *Kro Hotels are the owners and operators of the

hotel, sold in 2014 by previous owners

Park Inn Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts, formerly Park Plaza International Hotels, Inns and Resorts and commonly known as just Park Plaza, is a hotel chain which runs several hotel groups as franchises. It was established in 1986 as a company and acquired b ...

. * Leigh Athletic Football Club. Plays all their home games at the Leigh Harriers * Manchester United Reserves play most home games there as of the 2014–15 season. * Manchester United W.F.C. play most of their home games there as of the 2018–19 season while redevelopment work happens at

The Cliff A cliff is a vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliff, The Cliff or The Cliffs may also refer to: Buildings *Cliff Brewery, a former brewery near Ipswich, England *Cliff Palace, largest cliff dwelling in North America *The Cliffs, a histo ...

References

External links

Leigh Sports Village websiteThe Official Website of Sports Village ChurchLeigh Dojo

Leigh Harriers Athletics Club

Leigh Athletic FC

Johnson Training
{{Authority control Rugby league stadiums in England Rugby League World Cup stadiums Sport in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan Buildings and structures in Leigh, Greater Manchester Sports venues in Greater Manchester Football venues in England Women's Super League venues Sports venues completed in 2008 Leigh Centurions Manchester United F.C. Manchester United W.F.C. UEFA Women's Euro 2022 stadiums