The Don Valley

Situated on the Yellow route between Sheffield City Centre and Meadowhall, this area is unrecognisable to the Don Valley pre 1980's when the landscape was surrounded by factories involved in all aspects of the steel industry. Very few of these now remain and Sheffield has had to change with the times.

Much of this area was derelict brown field land prior to the arrival of Supertram but the frequent easy to use system has helped to attract business to the area.

Services to the Don Valley area from Meadowhall, Hillsborough, Middlewood and the City Centre operate every 10 minutes peak (07.30 - 19.30 Mon - Fri, 09.30 - 17.30 Sat ) and every 20 minutes at all other times. On Sundays a 20 minute service also operates on the Purple route to give a 10 minute frequency between the City Centre or Meadowhall and the Don Valley between 10:00AM & 18:00PM. To Access the Don Valley area from Sheffield Midland train station would usually involve boarding a tram to travel one stop from the station to Fitzalan Square/Ponds Forge and crossing to the opposite platform to board the Yellow route tram towards Meadowhall. All trams have a conductor on board who will be available to purchase tickets from as well as offering information and advice

The two major sites in the Don Valley; The Hallam Fm Arena and the Don Valley Stadium host some major events and Supertram works closely with both locations to provide transportation to and from the area. Additional trams are always made available after events to transport people quickly and safely away.

Hallam FM Arena

The Hallam FM Arena, originally named the Sheffield Arena, is an arena hosting concerts and sporting events in Sheffield. It takes its name from a local radio station, Hallam FM.

Constructed at a cost of £34 million, it was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 31 May 1991. As of 2004 it is estimated that approximately 7 million people have attended events at the arena. It has a maximum seated capacity of 12,500, but has been known to accommodate up to 38,000 people. This makes it the largest Ice rink in the UK despite the National Ice Centre being in Nottingham.

The arena is owned by Sheffield City Trust, an independent charity, and managed under contract by the US media giant Live Nation UK.

In 1992 it was the site of the infamous Sheffield Rally, in which Neil Kinnock led the Labour Party in what has come to be thought of as a public relations disaster just days before the general election.

Sheffield Steelers ice hockey team and the Sheffield Sharks basketball team also play their home games at the arena. The Arena hosts the British round of the motorcycle trial Indoor World Championships.

Don Valley Stadium

The Don Valley Stadium is an athletics stadium in Sheffield, England. It was designed by Sheffield City Council's Design & Building Services and built by RM Douglas Construction. The complex opened in 1990, ready for the 1991 World Student Games and has since become a profitable centre for athletics in the area. It is named after the River Don, near which it lies.

It is home for the Sheffield Eagles rugby league team and is also used for Channel 4's celebrity sports show, The Games and for concerts, hosting acts such as The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The Stadium also hosts BritBowl, the championship finals of the British American Football League.

The stadium and facilities provide a training base for the City of Sheffield Athletic Club.

Completed in September 1990 at a cost of £29m, the Don Valley Stadium was the first completely new national sporting venue built outdoors in Great Britain since Wembley in the early twenties. It was built as the centre-piece of a £147m construction programme needed to provide the necessary sports and cultural facilities to enable the city to host the 1991 World Student Games.

The track is sunk five metres below ground level and is sheltered by banks of spectator seating, creating a 'bowl effect'. This not only gives ideal viewing conditions, but also offers athletes every opportunity of producing peak performances.

This record-breaking philosophy has even had a bearing on the angle at which the track is set and its positioning is relative to the prevailing winds and the rise and fall of the sun. The finishing line has been positioned at the east end of the stadium which means that in the afternoon and evening when most meetings are held the sun will always be at the athletes backs in the finishing straight, as is the prevailing westerly wind. Jan Zelezny threw 95.66m in the Javelin on the 29 Aug 1993 (which was a world record at the time) and infamously nearly skewered the TV commentators who were interviewing near the start/finish line !

The whole of the running track and its infield is illuminated by the strongest floodlighting system in the country. Each of the five lighting towers used is 45 metres above track level and carries a lighting head as tall as a typical three storey house (11 metres high). All amenities for competitors and officials are at track level with all spectator facilities at natural ground level. This means, for example, that disabled spectators have level access from the main car park straight through to the mid level of spectator seating.

VIP facilities are on a third level while the top-most of the four levels has been set aside for hospitality boxes and press areas.

The Stadium's major focal point is its grandstand which holds 10,000 spectators. The main canopy roof has an area of 6000 square metres and is made of Teflon coated glass fibre. It is supported by ladder masts reaching 12m above the top of the grandstand, the latter are painted yellow and give the stadium its unmistakeable appearance. They also give completly uninterrupted sight lines around the bowl although coverage from the rain in the bottom half of the stand can be problematic. Underneath the main stand is located an 85m indoor running/warm up track. Up to 15,000 spectators can also be accommodated on the open terracing making the seating capacity 25,000, although the stadium has a maximum capacity of 52,000 if the infield is used for standing. There were plans to use the stadium in a Sheffield bid for the 2002 Commonwealth games (which eventually went to Manchester) and also to use it as a potential joint ground for the city's two football teams. In both of these eventualities the seated capacity would have been raised to 45,000.

The Rolling Stones held a concert at the stadium on the 27th of August 2006, as part of their A Bigger Bang Tour.

Don Valley Bowl

Situated beside Don Valley Stadium and behind Ice Sheffield, this is the region's finest open air, greenfield site.   The Bowl has played host to many spectacualr events including;   Music in the Sun, Hallam FM Party in the Park 2001, The World Firefighter Games 2004, The BAFL Showjumping Event in May 2006, to mention but a few!   The Bowl is also the regular venue for Sheffield's annual 'After Dark' celebration on Bonfire Night.

Ice Sheffield

Ice Sheffield  was completed in May 2003 at a cost of £15 million. It consists of two Olympic-size ice rinks with seating for 1500 people. It is now home to most ice hockey teams in Sheffield with the exception being the Sheffield Steelers who are still based at nearby Sheffield Arena.

Valley Centertainment

With its very own tramstop, situated between the Arena and Meadowhall, this is the place to be. Theres the 20 screen Cineworld cinema, Hollywood bowl and a multitude of diners bars and fast food outlets.