Midland Counties Athletic Association

Every summer, the Midland Counties Athletic Association begins planning for the coming winter season, hoping to provide indoor competition for both athletes and officials.
This year, the hope was even greater with the return of the High-Performance Centre (HPC) at Alexander Stadium as a possible venue. The running of the stadium and the whole site is now in the hands of Serco, a private company.
When we started investigating possible venues for our 2026 indoor season, we began with the High-Performance Centre. After some time and a lot of communicating, it became pretty apparent that it would not be possible to organise any meetings there. The price of the arena, along with other incidental costs, makes it impossible. There are also issues with the lack of warm-up and spectator facilities. This is disappointing, something that we cannot overcome.
Enquiries with other venues were also being made at the same time. Loughborough, Lee Valley, unable to get in, along with Cardiff and Sheffield. More recently, Manchester became a possibility. Cost-wise, it is viable; however, the only dates there clash with other already scheduled competitions. 31st January/1st February a Loughborough meeting – 14th/15th February (UK Championships and BUCS) 7th/8th March (EA Age Groups). You may think that not all athletes will compete in these events. To provide a competitive meeting, we require suitably qualified technical officials, many volunteer helpers, and a substantial number of athletes to make the events viable.
Unfortunately, despite great efforts over a number of months, the Midland Counties will again be unable to provide indoor competition for our athletes and officials, for which we apologise, but these circumstances are beyond our control.
Stewart Barnes
Chair
Midland Counties Athletic Association

MCAA U20 & Senior10,000m Championships - Friday 15th August 2025 at Abbey Stadium, Redditch

Timetable
7pm - Women’s 10,000m
7:50pm - Women’s Presentations
8pm - Men’s 10,000m
8:50pm - Men’s Presentations

Entries at https://entry4sports.co.uk/en10000-25/