First look inside Caledonia Gladiators’ new East Kilbride home

Scotland’s only professional basketball franchise Caledonia Gladiators has unveiled how its 1,600-seater temporary arena in East Kilbride will look, exactly a month ahead of the team’s first major game at its new home on 5 October.

The indoor arena and fan zone have been designed within the existing Playsport building, which is home to a number of sports facilities including golf, football and swimming.

The opening of the temporary arena next month will mark the end of the first phase of a £20m project, which will culminate in the opening of a permanent ‘centre for basketball’ featuring a 6,000 seater arena, training stadium and academy, gym facilities and physio suites.

The club has described this as ‘the largest single investment in Scottish basketball history’, with talks under way that could see the venue also used for music concerts and conferences.

This initial stage of the project has focused on the adaptive re-use of the existing facility to create a top-tier basketball offering through a new arena for the club. New match day and training courts have been provided alongside grandstand seating with deck access for spectators.

An expansive concourse draws in fans and provides access to the arena from an enhanced fan zone area, which is served by a variety of hospitality options and a new VIP offering, providing a unique and flexible space for the club to host their fans.

Ethan Kennedy, project architect at Holmes Miller said: “Basketball is a rapidly growing sport in the UK, and the Caledonia Gladiators have grand ambitions for their new home as a centre for Scottish basketball. We have been working closely in partnership with the club to help bring these aspirations to life and provide a positive experience for basketball fans across Scotland, and for the Gladiators team.

“Through Holmes Miller's extensive experience in sport and event architecture, we have been able to develop creative solutions in reusing the spaces of the existing facility to create a venue which puts the experience of the team and the fans first.

“The team is especially proud of the new fan zone space that will be unique to this type and scale of venue and will offer an excellent fan experience and added value to the club.

“We’re looking forward to seeing the temporary venue open next month and to continuing to work with the club towards making their dream of building Europe’s finest basketball stadium a reality.”

Steve Timoney, owner of the Caledonia Gladiators, said: “We’ve been really impressed with the work of the team at Holmes Miller in supporting the design of our new stadium.

“They’ve helped bring a complex project to life – at an incredibly fast pace – and we can’t wait to see the stadium complete for our first match in our new home next month.

“We look forward to continuing to build our partnership with Holmes Miller in the coming months as we progress plans for the second stage of our overall stadium project.”