Northern Ireland Stadium News

The group behind the proposed City of Belfast Stadium at Ormeau Park have submitted their plans to Belfast City Council as of Tuesday. Included in the submission are plans of what the stadium would actually look like.

The councils Community & Recreation Committee will vet the responses (to the development brief issued on 5th June) and announce their preferred bidder on 21st August, a choice that must be ratified by a meeting of the full council on 1st September.

The main hurdle remaining is that the project will require planning permission from the Department of the Environment to go ahead, and some are worried that life could be made difficult for the Belfast stadium backers due to the government’s support for the rival Maze plans.

Paul Durnien, head of Durnien.com, the main company behind the project, reiterated that the City of Belfast stadium would be built at no cost to the taxpayer and that the proposed complex, incorporating a grayhound track, a community-based sports/recreation centre, swimming pool, training facilities and a sports-medical centre, would not occupy any of the parkland currently used by the local community. He also said that pending the approval necessary (including the council’s and the DoE’s), the stadium project would definitely go ahead.

Belfast City Council today issued a detailed development brief to the 7 developers that expressed interest in the council’s proposals for a new stadium in the city (which will be funded at no cost to the ratepayer, unlike the government’s Maze Plans which will cost the taxpayer millions). The brief covers all aspects of the stadium from planning, design, development, funding, construction to operation, promotion and ongoing management. The council have set a deadline of 25th July for responses.

THe NIO are a step ahead, having released their ‘masterplan’ last week, and are currently at the stage of running a competition for the design of the stadium itself. However the NIO need to attract anything up to £300 million in investment for their project, which includes many peripheral facilities around the stadium. However, the council are still of the firm belief that a Belfast stadium is viable and their deadline illustrates that they are determined to push ahead with their plans and disprove the myth propagated by the NIO that the Maze is the only viable option.

The Council’s Bob Stoker, chair of the Community and Recreation Committee said “we have included a stipulation in the brief that the stadium should be funded at no cost to the council. That is vital at a time when ratepayers face bills of three times more than they currently pay…. the vast majority of sports fans in Northern Ireland would prefer a stadium in Belfast, which is accessible by public transport and is close to other night-time entertainment venues and hotels. There is a gathering momentum behind siting a multi-sports stadium in Belfast”

The NIO need to realise that the stadium must be brought closer to the people. Build it in Belfast 

The NIO is to launch what it calls its masterplan for the Maze site today, despite ongoing misgivings from the majority of football and many GAA fans. The BBC report claims the final decision could be anything up to 18 months away, and even suggested that the delay might be a sign of problems that could still derail the project. Here’s hoping.

The NIO are to pitch the plan to members of the GAA, IRFU and IFA as well as politicians from the four main parties. Rumours are circulating on the internet that the NIO has put undue pressure on the sporting bodies in a combination of what can only be described as verging on bribery and/or blackmail. The bodies may already have given up but the fans haven’t.

Nothing has changed in the last year. Out-of-town stadia are still proving unworkable and costly all over the world.

We continue to urge the NIO to do the right thing - Build it in Belfast! Register your support now.

Despite the government’s protests that the Maze is the only viable site for a new major stadium for Northern Ireland, 2 new proposals emerged today from groups who would beg to differ. Both the proposals put forward today are based on developing sites in Belfast, near the city centre.

The first proposal, which has the backing of Belfast’s Chamber of Trade and Commerce, contains details of the potential for building a new stadium at the site of Maysfield Leisure Centre, closed and abandoned by the council last year and currently due for demolition. Although the site, which is adjacent to Central Station, is only 6 acres in size, the backers have drawn up plans for a 28,500 seater stadium with car parking facilities. A model of the proposal was completed by Peter Hunter of Arup Sports (a company that worked on the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff and Lansdowne Road in Dublin) showing how the site could accommodate a stadium.

The second proposal, backed by Paul Durien of Durien Quantity Surveyors, has enlisted help from a company that worked on Old Trafford and Hampden Park. It proposes that the “City of Belfast Stadium” be developed at Ormeau Park, currently the site of the O-Zone leisure complex. This site is much larger than the Maysfield one, but is thought to have been previously ruled out by the SIB on planning and transport grounds.

Last week the Strategic Investment Board said that they hadn’t been given any other options to consider. Now they have. With the Titanic Quarter seemingly being developed for other uses, it’s good to see the community in Belfast has not given up the fight to get Northern Ireland’s stadium built where it belongs – in the province’s capital.

The BBC reports ‘No support’ for new Maze stadium while UTV declare New proposals on NI stadium and the Newsletter announces City Alternatives To Maze Stadium.

Last week the government announced they were planning to put an extra 12,000 seats in the Maze Stadium at an extra cost of £30 million (remember they said the Titanic Quarter was too expensive?).

The original 30,000 was too many for Rugby and Football; this increase is a step (and a hop and a jump) too far.

Read the story at BBC Online (Bigger stadium is planned for NI) and the Stadium For Belfast response to the announcement right here at stadiumforbelfast.com.

While we reached our 250th confirmed signature today, the 30th of March 2005 was a sad day for sport in Northern Ireland, as direct (mis)rule minister for Finance, Ian Pearson announced that after conducting viability studies of the three shortlisted sites, the Maze was the only viable option. Stadium For Belfast intendo to try and get a copy of the viability studies, to see what exactly made the proposals so unviable.

In the mean time you can check out the BBC’s report on the issue, or a rather more emotive report at EverythingUlster.com.

Tony Whitehead of the Strategic Investment Board was confronted by angry Northern Ireland supporters at last night’s Nationwide football discussion at the Hilton Hotel, Belfast. Whitehead had effectively announced that it was the “Maze or nothing” for a new stadium, but supporters challenged his claims that no site in Belfast was viable, pointing to both the Titanic Quarter and the North Foreshore.

Whitehead claimed that Titanic Quarter was not viable because of:

• Cost
• Police opposition because of “difficulties” in bringing GAA fans to the Titanic Quarter
• Health & Safety Executive opposition to large numbers at a stadium on that site
• “planning difficulties”

Supporters were not convinced by these arguments. Essentially, we believe that, with political will, all of these can be overcome! These are excuses, not arguments! That’s ignoring the fact that the PSNI have said they will do their job regardless of where the stadium is located.

As for North Foreshore, he was very quiet about this site, but - when pressed - he said it was not viable because of £20m additional costs of building on landfill. He was then challenged about the infrastructure costs associated with the Maze site and had to admit that these also cost £20m! In reality the cost of infrastructure at the Maze is likely to be even higher than that.

It is clear that rather than solving the problem of building a national stadium, the Government is using our need for a new stadium as a means of solving their own problem: i.e. what to do with the Maze. Whitehead is working to a Government brief and it looks more and more certain that his job to rule out the other sites in favour of the Maze!