The John Charles Centre for Sport is a sports facility in South Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was previously named the South Leeds Stadium and was renamed to honour John Charles, the former Leeds United, Juventus F.C. and Wales footballer. It is located to the south of Leeds city centre roughly on the border of Beeston, Belle Isle and Hunslet. The sports centre opened in 1996. The stadium has been used by Leeds United for reserve matches, and since November 1995 by rugby league club Hunslet. It is the principal athletics stadium in the Leeds area and is the home of Leeds City Athletics Club. The sports complex also includes a tennis centre and indoor bowls and athletics centre. The stadium is one of the best available to clubs at Hunslet's level. The complex is comparable with the Gateshead International Stadium.
Layout
Stadium
The stadium was the first part of the sports centre to be built. It has a two tier stand at the west end of the ground which has a capacity of 4,000. It also houses the changing rooms, corporate boxes and the Phoenix Bar. The stadium has a running track as well as a pitch and is mainly used for rugby league and athletics.
Aquatics Centre
The Aquatics Centre opened on 29 October 2007. The Olympic size swimming pool replaced previous facilities at the 40-year-old Leeds International Pool. Two submersible booms built into the main pool enable it to be divided into three pools of different sizes and depths, allowing a flexible daily swimming programme. A floating floor allows the depth of the diving pool and ⅓ of the main pool to be varied from two metres to shallow water for teaching and 0–5 metres for the diving pool. The centre is also suitable for national and international swimming and diving, with seating for 950 people overlooking the main pool and for 150 overlooking the diving area. The £16.5m centre also includes an aerobics studio and multi-use rooms. The movement of the city's main public swimming facilities to South Leeds attracted criticism. It left the city centre deprived of facilities and the new centre is difficult to reach for people without the use of a car. The South Leeds Stadium is also remote for people in north Leeds and outlying villages and towns, although other public sport facilities are available throughout Leeds.
Tennis Centre
The tennis centre at John Charles Centre for Sport consists of 6 indoor courts and 6 outdoor courts. There is also a spectator balcony, changing facilities, meeting room, and cafeteria. The courts are available to hire on a pay and play basis and can be booked up to seven days in advance or eight days in advance by LEEDSCard holders. There are a wide range of tennis sessions available to adults and youths including coaching, individual lessons, social tennis, and competitive league opportunities.
Indoor bowls
The centre has a large indoor bowls complex, this features eight bowls rinks and hosts bowls leagues and tournaments. It is the home venue of
Usage
Rugby League
The stadium has been home to Hunslet since it was opened in 1996. Although the ground is not located in Hunslet it is just over the motorway from the club's original home at Parkside. The stadium has also held other rugby league events.
Gaelic Football
The stadium is also used for Gaelic matches for time to time. Teams from all over Yorkshire, Manchester and Ireland compete for a trophy every year.
Swimming
Since April 2008, the City of Leeds Synchronised Swimming Club adopted the facilities as their main centre for training and administration. The club are a regional club which consist of competitive swimmers throughout the whole of the North East. In May 2012, the Dutch and Chinese Olympic Swimming Teams announced that they would train at the centre in the lead up to the 2012 London Olympics.
Diving
The Centre is the primary training facility for the City of Leeds Diving Club and is responsible for producing some of the best divers in the country who have been chosen to compete at an international and Olympic level. The Club has trained a number of successful athletes including Rebecca Gallantree, Alicia Blag, Dan Goodfellow and Matty Lee as well as Great Britain's first ever diving gold medallists Jack Laugher and Chris Mears.
The centre was used as the venue to count the general election votes in 2010 for all Leeds constituencies. Previously Leeds Town Hall was used for this purpose. In 2015 this function was moved to the First Direct Arena.
