Response to Ed Curran’s “Open Letter to Sports Fans”
Another startling example of the “let me just bend over for you” attitude of the local ‘press’ to the Northern Ireland Office was printed in the Belfast Telegraph yesterday in an Open Letter to Sports Fans in Northern Ireland penned by David Curran. Curran makes a lot of flawed assumptions and uses a lot of warped logic. It seems he made the mistake of actually believing some of the rubbish that has been said about the Maze proposals and opposition to them. To afford Mr Curran the generous assumption that his errors were honest, let’s look at his collection of “mistakes”.
(On a side note, the Amalgamation of Northern Ireland Supporters Clubs have reportedly made repeated requests to have an opinion piece printed in the same paper. These repeated requests have allegedly been repeatedly ignored.)
Mistakes 1 and 2: “The British Government gifts us a 360-acre site, barely 10 miles from Belfast”
The site may be free, but surely Mr Curran is familiar with the concept of opportunity cost. A mere two lines later he says “We have the site for free to build a stadium, housing or other amenities.” The site is infinitely better-suited to a housing development than a stadium.
As for the location. The fact that it’s 10 miles from Belfast isn’t a problem. The fact is that it will be a nightmare to get to via the one road in and out and that there will be limited facilities to encourage supporters to hang around a while. This still (after those four years of “navel gazing” by Curran and friends) does not offer a solution to the problem that fans will simply have to turn up immediately before the match and leave again immediately after.
Mistake 3: “The traditionally conservative GAA is persuaded out of its natural heartlands to share the site with rugby and soccer.”
That’s very generous of them but they still won’t have to actually use it given that they have other stadia dotted around the place which they can use. In fact Antrim GAA have said it’s not really needed. Either way it’s unlikely they will worry too much about Rugby’s one game every two years, so why should we build a stadium at the Maze just because the GAA have decided they will not object to football matches being played there?
Mistake 4: “Sinn Fein is also prepared to buy into this sports-sharing ideal even though it is situated in a bastion of unionism.”
The Maze is in a bastion of nothing. It’s in a field outside (a good 3 miles from) a bastion of unionism. What does “bastion of unionism” even mean? Depending on who you talk to Northern Ireland itself is a “bastion of unionism”. Turning the hyperbole dial down a notch or two wouldn’t do any harm.
Mistake 5: “As a leading unionist, who would have no time for terrorism, put it to me the other day: ‘Are we going to allow 10 dead hunger-strikers to deny us a world-class stadium?’”
A very emotive and (surely unintentionally) manipulative way of looking at it. Make people think they’re giving in to terrorism by not building a stadium and a “conflict transformation centre” there. Incidentally, one wonders if this “leading unionist” would by any chance be a Lisburn Councillor or Lagan Valley MLA? Or is there some other reason this “leading unionist” wishes to remain anonymous? Aside from anything else even if concerns with the prison museum are ignored, more than enough concerns remain to warrant terminating the Maze proposals.
Mistake 6: “many fans have genuine concerns about the city losing out to the country in this debate.”
This straw man really annoys people. Supporters of the Maze have tried to propagate the myth that it’s only Belfast-based city-folk who don’t like the Maze and that their objections centre around the fact that it’s in the country. In fact fans who are against the Maze come from all over Northern Ireland and aren’t worried about the city losing out to the country as long as Northern Ireland overall wins. What they’re worried about is sport in Northern Ireland losing out to some ambitious parochial Lagan Valley politicians and a government more concerned with symbolism than practicality.
Mistake 7: “everything from religion and politics to prejudice and snobbery have been key players in this great game of delaying tactics.”
Delaying tactics? Nobody wants to delay anything, we want to stop the Maze disaster altogether, and the politics (from someone who has already put some significant weight behind the opinions of an anonymous “leading unionist” and Sinn Fein’s opinion? What about the shared future stuff we’re being sold as a reason for building the Maze, is that not political priorities overriding sporting need?) and prejudice (football fans are all just bigots, if you’re anti-Maze you must be from Belfast) has been coming largely from one side of the debate. Here’s a clue, it’s not the anti-Maze side.
Mistake 8: “With proper public transport, bus and rail links in place, it will be easily accessible from city and country alike.”
“With proper public transport in place”? In this country? That’s enough said about that one.
Mistake 9: “The Olympic Games are on the horizon. Northern Ireland can benefit by staging some of the events for locations outside London.”
This is another piece of propaganda used my proponents of the Maze project all the time, now that they’ve finally realised the UEFA cup final can’t possibly go to the Maze. The fact is that the Maze, if we’re extremely lucky, could host a couple of the group stages of the football tournament. Baring in mind that Olympic football is for under-23s, and that if we get anything it’s likely to be obscure teams, is it really worth building a £110 million stadium for?
In short, Mr Curran’s “journalism” sums up, sadly, the tactics of those who would consign Northern Ireland’s sports to the Maze. A compilation of lies, half-truths and bad or non-existant research. For a full overview of the list of reasons why the Maze idea is an ill-thought-out disaster waiting to happen see our 7-point summary of complaints.
Don’t let what passes for journalism in Northern Ireland tell you what to think. Please sign the Stadium For Belfast petition.
November 20th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Mistake 1 and 2
“The fact is that it will be a nightmare to get to via the one road in and out and that there will be limited facilities to encourage supporters to hang around a while.”
One road being a motorway lol where can you build an access point like this in Belfast. Plus there is the usage of the old rail link that is still accessible from Dublin rail line and then you have the dual carriage way that will be connected again. How do you know what facilities that are going to be there they have not been fully discussed as of yet….
Mistake 3
Considering the biggest stadium for GAA in Ulster is in Monaghan would it not be more feasible to use the stadium for the Ulster Championship.
Mistake 4
““Sinn Fein is also prepared to buy into this sports-sharing ideal even though it is situated in a bastion of unionism.”” Tell that to the people who live in the area you have three major unionist areas within 1 mile of the site that is being proposed.
Mistake 5
You haven’t quantified an answer?
Mistake 6
Where would you build it Ormeau no road or rail network within a mile that can handle the project no parking no point… Duncrue Well its out of Belfast then lol that’s Newtownabbey is it not? No rail link there either
Mistake 7
How many people can get to the matches now?
15000 would it not be better to go somewhere where if we play like we have been we get 40000 some matches may not get this amount but build it like the Reebok in Bolton and you would still get the sound of a full stadium. Windsor was good for a while but what is stopping us from using the maze as for an argument i heard before about build it in the biggest population base looking at the expansion of Lisburn shouldn’t be too long before its population size is the same as Belfast.
Bus and rail in Northern Ireland are better than the rest of the UK Okay not saying much but you cant go wrong with only having 1 train line that side of Belfast lol. The rail road and bus network will server this area better than any other area of Belfast.
Mistake 9
Is this what you think of Northern Ireland that we will only get small crap think again if scotland can get the commonwealth games for 2014 should we not start thinking along these lines you should be trying to make Northern Ireland a better place for sport not talking us down for goodness sake. The stadium would also help in promoting a Scotland Wales Northern Ireland euro champs campaign.
December 12th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
JM
1&2: What good is having a motorway in if it’s congested by a bottleneck at the entrance to the stadium because those thousands of cars all have to park in the same place? That’s the problem with having one place to park and one entrance to it.
3: I don’t understand - are you saying the GAA should use the stadium in Monaghan or that they should use the Maze BECAUSE it’s in Monaghan?
4: What “three major unionist areas” are within a mile of the site?
5: The question is a non sequitr. Nobody is refusing to allow a new stadium to be built because of the hunger strikers - we’re asking that it be somewhere else, and there are plenty of more important reasons why the Maze is a bad idea without even considering the potential problems with the “centre for conflict transformation”.
6: Ormeau would be accessible from central station, significant parking could be allocated in/around/under the stadium itself (as was planned) and more could use car parks around the city that are normally only full during office hours.
7: I don’t know where to start. It’ll be some time before Lisburn catches up to Belfast (are you including the chunk of west Belfast that’s in the Lisburn council area in your population of Lisburn by any chance?). Don’t be fooled into thinking “some matches may not get” 40,000. One match in a decade may get that amount. And what if we (I presume you mean the Northern Ireland football team?) don’t continue playing the way we are. What about the domestic cups that will have to use it? What about rugby? Have you ever been to Great Britain? I have to ask as I don’t believe anyone who ever has could ever suggest our bus and rail network is better. It’s pitiful.
9: 3 countries will never host the Euros. Northern Ireland will never host the Commonwealth games. The facilities aren’t there and its not just sports facilities. We can’t host a UEFA cup final for the same reasons, e.g. not enough hotel beds in the whole of Northern Ireland!! Newsflash: Northern Ireland is small! That’s the whole problem with this project: it lacks a grounding in reality.
December 13th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
I’m in the camp of ‘lets just build the damn thing’, but aside from that, the reason i am posting is that i’ve lived in england for about 3 years up until recently, and i think that NI’s bus and rail service is better than that of England at least
December 14th, 2007 at 11:00 am
JonBoy - genuine question. Have you ever had to get a bus that wasn’t going to or from somewhere in Belfast?