Stadium report fails to scare Poots

Edwin Poots was meant to be running scared, but instead he turned up at Belfast City Hall for the launch of a 100-page report on why the city and not the Maze in his own constituency near Lisburn should be the site of a new multi-sports stadium for Northern Ireland.

The report was billed as a key body of work, presenting "overwhelming evidence" that a city location was the preffered option of those consulted by the authors, a team of University of Ulster academics.

One of them, Michael Smyth of the School of Economics and Politics, claimed so blindingly obvious were the findings that even "a spaceship full of Martians" would have reached the same conclusion - a Belfast option is more tourist friendly with greater potential spend and provides more sponsorship opportunities.

The report was not meant to be a business plan - it contains no costings, no projected incomes.

Nor, we were told, was it meant to examine the planning hurdles surrounding Ormeau Park in south Belfast, the best site in the eyes of private sector developers.

Hence, of the 105 interviewees the authors spoke to listed in the report appendix, none represented an Ormeau residents' group. The area's MP also doesn't appear to have been consulted.

"I'm more interested in what's missing. What's missing are alternatives to the Maze which stack up"
Edwin Poots

Also, what are the views of the soccer, GAA and rugby authorities specifically on Ormeau or any new stadium in Belfast?

That was not in the report either, although according to the appendix they were interviewed.

Maybe this is being too harsh - if it wasn't the remit, it wasn't the remit - but all this is precisely the kind of detail Edwin Poots wants by a deadline of 30 June to convince him, as minister responsible, that the Maze stadium project should be put on hold and the whole location issue revisted.

That explained his dismissive reaction: "I'm more interested in what's missing. What's missing are alternatives to the Maze which stack up."

It should also be pointed out, the report was not done in response to the deadline.

Belfast City Council paid the University of Ulster £17,000 of ratepayers' money for this report which took months to compile.

In response to any criticism, Michael Smyth claimed £1.7m of taxpayers' money has gone on glossy presentations and PR for the Maze. Oh and by the way, he points out, where is the Maze business plan and viability study?

Belfast City Council has a point that disclosure is a two-way street.

So where does it leave us?

'Long-running saga'

Yes the report does contribute to the debate, which has now become a very long-running saga.

But should it have been done sooner? It's two-and-a-half years since a direct rule administration picked the Maze ahead of Belfast.

Is it too little, too late?

The report also suffered somewhat from hype in the advance council press release: "Poots running scared of major report which provides hard, factual evidence."

Minister Poots says it's put up or shut up time for Belfast and this wasn't on its own a dossier to prompt a ministerial u-turn.

There are 10 days left to find a more convincing way to change his mind.

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