University of East London Homepage

SportsDock: a new era for sport in East London

Saturday 24 March 2012

SportsDock

An exciting new era for sport in East London was ushered in today (Saturday, 24 March 2012) with the official unveiling of a brand new state of the art sports facility at the University of East London (UEL).

SportsDock at UEL’s Docklands Campus is a major new development for East London’s communities, offering top of the range facilities at an affordable price.  While Team USA will be using SportsDock as their training headquarters for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, residents can use the £21million sports facility complete with fitness centre, strength and conditioning room, two outdoor 3G five-a-side football pitches, indoor arenas, dance studios and sports cafe – all before the athletes arrive. SportsDock will reopen to the local community and UEL students and staff, following the London 2012 Games.

Joining visitors at today’s launch event were double Paralympic medal winner, Ade Adepitan MBE, five-time American Olympic medallist (four gold, one bronze) and Chef de Mission for Team USA, Teresa Edwards, and British long distance track and road running athlete, Mara Yamauchi, who competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Newham Mayor, Sir Robin Wales and MP for East Ham, Stephen Timms, also turned up to show their support.

Speaking at today’s landmark event, UEL Vice-Chancellor, Professor Patrick McGhee, said: “The opening of SportsDock will herald the dawn of an exciting new era for sport in East London; is a major milestone in our own ambition to become the number one university for sport in London by 2015 and will make a key contribution to the Olympic legacy.

 “Without question, this epitomises what Olympic legacy is all about and will ensure students, staff and the local community have a world-class sports facility on their own doorstep at an affordable price. I’m delighted everyone enjoyed the day and it was a pleasure to share this memorable occasion with members of the local community and our Olympic partners, who we look forward to welcoming once again this summer.”

Newham Mayor Sir Robin Wales said: "We are excited about the delivery of a programme for local schools that gives young people the chance to try a new sport at SportsDock. We are now on the home straight in the run-up to the Games and the anticipation is building. We want to tap into this excitement and ensure all our residents are active and involved.”

As part of the special open day, Ade Adepitan and Teresa Edwards took part in a training session with the Newham All Star Sports Academy (NASSA) and even managed to shoot a few hoops, while there was also training sessions with West Ham United Academy coaches, West Ham Boys Amateur Boxing Club and London Lynx Volleyball Club.

The University of East London funded the development of SportsDock, with some additional grants coming in from The London Marathon Trust, Mayors Legacy fund and England Basketball.

For membership enquiries, please visit www.sportsdock.co.uk or call 020 8223 6888.

Notes to Editors

The University of East London (UEL) is a global learning community with over 28,000 students from over 120 countries world-wide. Our vision is to achieve recognition, both nationally and internationally, as a successful and inclusive regional university proud of its diversity, committed to new modes of learning which focus on students and enhance their employability, and renowned for our contribution to social, cultural and economic development, especially through our research and scholarship. We have a strong track-record in widening participation and working with industry.

Information for screenreader users:

For a general description of these pages and an explanation of how they should work with screenreading equipment please follow this link: Link to general description

For further information on this web site’s accessibility features please follow this link: Link to accessibility information