Tourism Chief Backs Belfast
4th April 2006
A top tourist board member today joined the Belfast Chamber of Trade and Commerce backed calls for any new national stadium to be built in Belfast. Alan Clarke, Chief Executive of the NITB said he was certain that a Belfast stadium would help attract more tourism and leisure type events and business conferences/exhibitions to Northern Ireland, adding that international experience shows that organisers prefer a city-centre location.
"Large numbers of the tourism industry support the view that the infrastructure in central Belfast is capable of supporting the likely footfall of a new stadium and will therefore realise the project's full economic and tourism potential."
According to the Belfast Telegraph report, a DCAL spokesman said no firm decision had been made on the stadium, before going on to say that the sites in Belfast had been ruled out. In other words, we haven't decided where it's going to be, but it's going to be at the Maze.
Needless to say, this story seems to have been missed by both the BBC and UTV websites.
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