Sport, health, and wellbeing at Strathclyde
Our new £31m sports centre, Strathclyde Sport, is now open! Strathclyde Sport brings together training, fitness, and wellbeing, promoting health from every corner.
It's already attracted a long-term partnership agreement with national netball governing body Netball Scotland. This will see the facility become a regular training and event venue for the national Scottish Thistles team!
It also supports Strathclyde’s promotion of sport, health, and wellbeing for all regardless of age, gender or ability. It will increase membership of Strathclyde’s own netball teams and see The Sirens engage across academic disciplines and postgraduate research opportunities.
The Strathclyde Sirens
In other exciting news, Scotland’s most successful netball team has become The Strathclyde Sirens! The team will compete under the new name in the UK-wide Vitality Netball Superleague, televised by Sky Sports.
The sport is one of the fastest growing in the country, helped by the arrival of the arrival of the Sirens on the netball scene two years ago.
Our work with The Strathclyde Sirens will help them continue to grow as one of the leading female sports brands in Scotland. We aim to give them the chance to develop their talent pool and build on their significant success in accelerating the development of netball and women’s sport in Scotland. It'll also give the team space to continue to create inspirational role models and increase female participation in sport.
The Strathclyde Sirens will continue to play their home games at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, where they've been attracting large crowds since 2016. The team will use our newly-opened state-of-the-art sports centre for training.
Strathclyde students
Two Strathclyde students, Bethan Goodwin, and Niamh McCall play for the Strathclyde Sirens. They'll be joined in the team by six other Scots as they prepare to compete at next summer’s Netball World Cup in Liverpool, as well as two overseas signings.
Professor Sir Jim McDonald, Principal & Vice-Chancellor, at the University of Strathclyde, said:
Our exciting new partnership with Netball Scotland and our support for The Strathclyde Sirens underlines the University’s ongoing commitment to sport, health, and wellbeing in Scotland.
“It also enables us to provide direct and inclusive support to grassroots sport and encourage participation in netball specifically.”
Claire Nelson, Chief Executive Officer of Netball Scotland which owns the Strathclyde Sirens, said:
We're delighted to be able to finally announce our exciting new three-year partnership with the University of Strathclyde.
“Through this partnership we will be able to access, and utilise, industry-leading academic research, technology, innovation and state-of-the-art facilities in order to enhance and accelerate the development of our sport and our athletes.
“By bringing together the expertise and ambition of both the University and the Governing Body, we hope to create a pioneering new approach to the advancement of women’s professional sport in Scotland, and the Strathclyde Sirens will be at the forefront of that mission.”
Neil Brown, Head of Sport at the University of Strathclyde, said:
By anchoring the Sirens franchise within the University, Strathclyde will proudly be at the centre of the creation of the Performance Pathway for Netball Scotland alongside providing a truly world-class training environment for Scotland’s elite netball athletes.
“The innovative partnership will allow Strathclyde to realise its strategic ambitions of working with key partners to evolve and grow services that impact on performance, wellbeing, education, and participation. There is great excitement around the opportunities this partnership will afford both the University and Netball Scotland we cannot wait to get started.”