Report recommends 38,000-seater stadium for Maze site

A £240m (€318m) multi-sports stadium project for the North should be built at the former Maze prison, a leaked consultants' report revealed today.

The fully-costed feasibility study found that the site outside Lisburn represented the best value for money for a 38,500-seat venue for rugby, football and Gaelic games.

The business case, which was compiled by consultants from PricewaterhouseCoopers, is currently being reviewed by Stormont Finance Minister Peter Robinson before being passed to his Executive colleagues.

The PWC report examined a range of options, including a hypothetical stadium in north Belfast and the refurbishment of the three sporting bodies' existing venues.

It has recommended that the British government press ahead with plans for the all-seater venue at the Maze/Long Kesh (MLK) site.

It is estimated that the stadium would cost £126m (€166m) to build and would need an additional £114m (€151m) investment to improve the transport infrastructure around the isolated site.

However, the consultants said a venue at Long Kesh had the potential to generate significant revenue and claimed that the overall cost to the taxpayer after the first fours years of operation would be £37m (€49m).

It was working on the basis that the Maze venue would host 23 major sporting and music events in a year and attract just under 500,000 paying spectators.

The stadium would accommodate six or seven Northern Ireland football matches, five or six GAA matches and three Ulster rugby games each year.

All three sporting bodies - the IFA, GAA and IRFU - have provisionally signed up to the Maze site.