The Alan Higgs Centre, opened in September 2004, is a leisure centre 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 Bedwort ...

, on Allard Way in the southeast of

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the 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 city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...

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 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-build ...

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 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 Nipponica, "Judo"). ...

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 Sum ...

competitions of the 2007 UK School Games 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 team Coventry United 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 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's Academy is based at The Alan Higgs Centre. There are four outdoor grass football pitches, a synthetic 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