Meadowbank Sports Centre is the biggest sports centre in Edinburgh and is located on London Road, in the east of the city. Built as Meadowbank Stadium at a cost of £2.8 million for the 1970 Commonwealth Games and used again as the principal venue when the Games returned to Edinburgh in 1986. The centre still regularly hosts sporting events at international level, despite its capacity for spectators having been reduced from 16,000 to 1,280. The stadium now includes an eight-lane outdoor athletics track, throwing and jumping areas, two synthetic sports pitches, a six-lane indoor athletics track, two multi-sport halls, a trampolining and dance hall, two fitness studios, two squash courts, a hospitality suite and meeting rooms. The original facility was controversially demolished in 2019-20 as part of a £47 million redevelopment, funded by sale of part of the land for commercial and residential development, losing its grandstand and velodrome. The rebuilt centre officially opened on the 4th November 2022. It was here that runner Liz McColgan won her gold medal in the 10,000m during the 1986 Commonwealth Games. Owned and run by the City of Edinburgh Council, more than 80 sports can be catered for at Meadowbank throughout the year.
