KKP produced a strategy to underpin a proposed £4million investment in the University's Graham Solley Sports Development Centre.

Sheffield Hallam's vision for sport is "to be known nationally and internationally for the excellence of its teaching, research and knowledge transfer in sport, the delivery of first class sport and the provision of excellent opportunities in sport for the University community."

Given this, it recognised the urgent need to invest in and improve the quality and accessibility of its outdoor sports facilities. Funding was allocated to take forward a scheme subject to approval of a comprehensive development plan.

A key issue to address was the fact that student and academic access to the Graham Solley site was being restricted by the level of community sports club and league use. The University was keen to address several key issues and KKP's work, as a result, focused upon:

• Facility development options - a detailed assessment of the development options, identifying a new and detailed facility mix for pitches and ancillary facilities.
• Usage - identified ways in which use of the site by students could be increased, improving its relevance to them and assessing the needs of community sports club partners and professional clubs to ensure that such use is maintained and its value to the University increased.
• Financial aspects - full capital costs were identified for the project linked to detailed resource plans taking account of professional club partnerships, community clubs, commercial sporting and non-sports opportunities, set against priority use by students.
• Implementation - a detailed operational plan for the site built on a programme of use and partnership potential.

From this, KKP identified a holistic approach to provision and the optimum facility mix to generate a sporting hub to best serve existing and latent University club and wider student demand, the needs of partners and the potential commercial market.

The report recommended a range of facility mix combinations to meet set objectives, options for partnership development with local organisations and funding impacts. This included the proposal that the University develop the Centre as its hub site for outdoor sport and invest in facilities at Norton Playing Fields to accommodate the needs of its more ‘peripheral' sports.

KKP's facilities and sports development management experience comes to the fore in multi-campus university and multi-user venue projects of this type. It recently supported Manchester Metropolitan University on a related topic and has just handed over a sports fields capacity review to assist the University of Glamorgan to plan the future for its facilities and develop external funding and operational partnerships.