New Group Proposes Maysfield for National Stadium

Last week the Strategic Investment Board claimed that they had no alternative proposal to the Maze to consider at the moment. 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.

Follow up:

Model of the Proposed Maysfield Stadium

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.