Milton Keynes Hockey Stadium Report 17/12/09

[Tankman]

In the City of the future, as far as buildings go! "They are there one day and gone the next"

Milton Keynes has its fair share of Modern buildings, and anything over 20 years old is classed as out of date and worthy of being demolished.
One such building is the former Milton Keynes Hockey Stadium
A lack lustre building which had a sterile feel about the place

I live only a "stones throw" from here, and well remember it being built, what could have been a great stadium with Athletics track etc, never materialised and instead ended up as a Hockey stadium, a minority sport, it was never really filled to capacity except when the Football arrived.

A Short History:-

The National Hockey Stadium was a sports stadium with a nominal capacity of around 4,000 seats (9,000 between 2003 and 2007). It was used by England Hockey as their national stadium from 1995 to 2003 and as a professional football stadium (for Milton Keynes Dons F.C.) from 2003 to 2007. Since 2007 the ground has been unused following the Dons' move to stadium:MK

The stadium was built in 1995 as a new national field hockey stadium, with a synthetic pitch. The ground was used for national and international (field) hockey until 2003. It had a covered main stand running the full length of one side of the pitch, opposite which was an unroofed stand running about one third of the length of the pitch, straddling the halfway line.

In 2003, the ground was leased to Milton Keynes Dons, a grass pitch was laid, meaning that the stadium was out of commission for hockey, and temporary stands were added at either end of the pitch. Hockey internationals and playoff matches were reallocated to various leading club grounds around the country. At the end of the lease (May 2007), the temporary stands were removed.

On 2 April 2007 the trustees of the National Hockey Foundation which owned the lease of the stadium announced that they had arranged to hand the lease back to English Partnerships as detailed study had shown that the stadium would no longer be viable as a hockey venue, particularly in light of the building of another hockey facility in Stratford, London, as part of the 2012 Olympics facilities.

The demolition is to make way for the new UK's Network Rail HQ which will bring 3,000 new jobs to the city.



The stadium front with its plain sterile appearance, certainly won no awards.



The stadium in use for Football, temporary stands were erected at both ends to increase crowd capacity, they were on temporary loan from Silverstone racetrack.



Faded posters and old signage were still up even though the last match was played here on 31st May 2007.





The main stand with its suspended roof, The roof was simply cut off at its stantions and allowed to fall in one piece onto the floor, where it was cut up for scrap.







The pitch was ripped up along with any remaining structures.

I must admit that this is not a UE, this place had "No Sole" and evoked no sentiments whatsoever, it is only recorded here as a record of its existance and demise, not really missed by anyone as it really went unreported in the local press

Further pics can be found here:
http://s260.photobucket.com/albums/i...ium/?start=all

[Bunkerkid]

I went to a game here once and was certainly a terrible stadium even when it was in use, here are some pics I took a few days ago and some I found trawling the interweb



Signs of demolition on the side of the stadium



Off the BBC website, the stadium in use



The stadium 'back in the day'



A similar comparison of what it looks like now, mostly demolished and soon completly gone