Don Valley Stadium as the centre-piece of a £147 million construction programme needed to provide the necessary sports and cultural facilities to enable the city to host the 1991 Summer Universiade. Jan Železný threw in the javelin on 29 August 1993 (which was a world record at the time) and infamously nearly hit the TV commentators who were interviewing close to the start/finish line. There were plans to use the stadium in a Sheffield bid for the 2002 Commonwealth Games (which eventually went to Manchester) and also to use it as a potential joint ground for the city's two football teams. In both
Don Valley Parkway is now part of the Charles Sauriol Conservation Reserve, which extends from the Forks of the Don, along the East Don to Milne Hollow at Lawrence Avenue, visible from the parkway. By contrast, Metro chairman Gardiner had an opposite opinion of the Don Valley and was quoted "I'll tell you what the Don Valley was. It was a place to murder little boys, that's what it was." The design of the project was contracted to the engineering consortium of Fenco-Harris, which completed the plans in the fall of 1955. The project included extending Bayview Avenue south along the Lower Don