Credit: Matthew Appleton

In a quiet corner of south-east Manchester, ten basketball players take to the court.

Battling it out in their colourful strips; towering over everyone else in the room, the two sets of players shake hands, take a stern look in each other’s eyes and then, after a short pause, the game erupts into action.

With onlooking fans repeatedly chanting “defence!”, giant foam fingers waving in the air and a menu of hot dogs, fries and macaroni and cheese, one would be forgiven for confusing the atmosphere with that more commonly experienced across the pond.

But this is no one off, not in Belle Vue.

Only a stones throw from the National Basketball Performance Centre lies The National Speedway Stadium, home to the Belle Vue Aces and Colts speedway teams, and the Manchester Titans American Football Team, with Belle Vue quietly becoming a major hub for American Sports in the North of England.

 “If we can make Manchester the hub of American sport, it kind of benefits everyone” said George Foster, the head of operations at Manchester Titans.

“We see it as a three-pronged approach, we’ve got the Basketball, motorcross and we’re hoping to add the American football aspect to that too, so if everything goes well, Belle Vue should see things going on pretty much constantly.”

Belle Vue, an area with strong working-class roots, has a history of entertainment, being dubbed the ‘showground of the world’ as Belle Vue Zoological Gardens from 1836 to 1977.

The area was also home to a greyhound track between 1926 and 2014.

Now hoping to add to this illustrious entertainment history are Manchester Basketball, and Manchester Titans, albeit with an American twist.

George said: “The ambition is to turn Belle Vue into the national performance centre of American football, to partner alongside the national performance centre of basketball.

“It’s about fans coming to Belle Vue and going ‘oh I might give the basketball a go’ and vice versa.”

Beyond action on the field, court, or track, the teams value curating an experience close to that overseas, but at a family friendly price, building a sense of community around the two stadiums.

A typical Manchester Basketball game features announcers chanting throughout the game, halftime competitions, fans in jerseys, and courtside tickets, pushing the experience as close to that over the pond as possible.

The team down the road have adopted a similar approach, with George saying:

“It’s trying to deliver an experience of American football that is as close as you can get to the real thing over in the States.

“Obviously, our talent level and our budget are nowhere near, but if you’re interested in American football in this country, unless you’ve got the money to go down to London, it isn’t accessible to you, and what we can offer is that accessibility.”

Keeping the sport affordable and accessible is paramount for both teams, something which fans often struggle with overseas.

The prices both sides offer mean Belle Vue is not just quietly becoming a hub for American sports, but affordable sports, in the North of England.

Similarly, the aim is not only to make Belle Vue a hub of American sports, but to develop the local community alongside it, with both teams offering free tickets to local schools to grow their respective sports and give back to the community.

“It’s a case of making sure we grow with the local community too”, George said.

“Our dream would be to be able to invest into Belle Vue and build up the stadia, support the buildings and the leisure centre and keep that fresh.

“If we move away from the sports for a minute, that would mean creating new jobs, creating new places to eat and drink, places to work, places to basically build community.”

Both the Titans, and Manchester Basketball have made these efforts to collaborate in building this community, and now find themselves sharing loyal fans who visit both teams due to their proximity.

And, as a disappointed group of those fans trickle out of the National Basketball Performance Centre after a devastating 83-80 defeat, they pass the home of Manchester’s other premier American Sports team, a venue many of them will be more than familiar with.

They didn’t have to walk far to reach it, no more than two minutes, and that’s testament to Belle Vue’s status as the premier grounds for any American sports fan in the north.