Debate contribution: Sports Museum

Debate contribution by Mr Alan Chambers on 2 February 2026.

MLA: Mr Alan Chambers
Party at the time: Ulster Unionist Party
Date: 2 February 2026
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Private Members' Business
Heading: Sports Museum
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5356959

Text

I beg to move
Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. Over 25 years ago, I was part of a conversation with the late Mr Barney Eastwood and Dame Mary Peters in a school hall in Bangor after the broadcast of an edition of 'Talkback'. A topic that had been discussed during the broadcast was the long-running saga of the Bangor seafront redevelopment. Dame Mary talked about her passion for the establishment of a sports museum. Mr Eastwood was enthusiastic about the idea and offered to donate artefacts from his boxing gym, including the ring that Barry McGuigan had used to hone the boxing skills that resulted in him becoming a world champion. In fact, a potential site for a museum could well have formed part of the Bangor seafront project at that time. On that day, the idea of creating a sports museum in Northern Ireland became a passion of mine, and, indeed, the more I thought about it, the more I formed the opinion that, with all the positives involved, the concept was a no-brainer. I realise that it would cost a lot of money to build a bespoke centre to house the museum and that a robust business case would be required to justify the investment. In the mid-2000s, Titanic Belfast was conceived as part of a wider strategy by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board to regenerate Belfast's waterfront and rebrand the city as a global tourist destination. The total cost of the development was approximately £97 million, making it one of the biggest tourism investments ever made in Northern Ireland. The project had its detractors. The Northern Ireland Audit Office questioned whether the economic case was sufficiently robust, highlighting the need for high visitor numbers to ensure financial sustainability. Despite the doubters, construction began in May 2009, and the development opened to the public in March 2012. The attraction was projected to need about 290,000 annual visitors to break even. In 2024, it had 900,000 visitors. It features in the top 10 visitor attractions in Northern Ireland and is considered to be the number-one visitor attraction in Belfast. I am reminded of the famous line from the movie, 'Field of Dreams': build it and they will come. Back to the sports museum. The motion highlights the economic benefits that the museum could bring to our local economy. In October last year, I asked the Minister for the Economy in a question for written answer whether her Department would consider the establishment of a Northern Ireland sports museum. I sensed that she perhaps did not grasp the economic opportunities. Instead, she suggested that I refer the idea to the Department for Communities, which had responsibility for the establishment of museums. I asked the same question of the Communities Minister, and he replied that he had no plans to develop a sports museum. However, during a recent debate on 'The Nolan Show' about such a museum, the Minister said that he would consider any proposal that was brought to him. I hope that the motion, if supported by the House, will prompt the Minister to join the Minister for the Economy in establishing a working group, as it suggests, to explore the appetite for and feasibility of such a museum. Why a sports museum? The motion alludes to our pride in our exceptional sporting legacy. A sports museum would be an opportunity to celebrate the success of our sportspeople and would act as a motivation for future generations to consider taking up a sport and continuing to add to our sporting legacy of success. What would we display in the museum? The challenge would be to make the hard decisions on what to exclude, given the rich history of Northern Ireland sports competitors punching well above our weight, given the size of our competitor base. There is probably a treasure trove of memorabilia stored in lofts and garages across the country. Some sports have already created modest but popular exhibitions, but they are scattered across many locations. The museum would pull all of that together under one roof. Individual and long-established clubs may wish to exhibit their history. Media outlets could mount exhibits about how sports reporting has advanced over the decades. I am thinking about the BBC, which pioneered sports reporting in Northern Ireland through radio and, later, TV. The print media may also want to be involved. A name that jumps out at me is the late, great Malcolm Brodie of the 'Belfast Telegraph'. Individual items could form the backbone of the museum. We have recently seen some of our major, retired sportspeople auctioning some of their collections. It is disappointing that so much of that will leave our shores. Perhaps, if a museum had been in place, a lot of that stuff would have ended up in it. A museum can conjure up an image of perhaps being stuffy and boring, with a static, long line of exhibits. We would have to give families reasons to visit. Having said that, I have no doubt that a collection from all the sports that our competitors have excelled at over decades would be anything but boring. There is no sport played in Northern Ireland that does not have a story to share. Artificial intelligence has opened up new possibilities. Numerous interactive challenges could be provided. You could ride a motorbike around the North West circuit in a simulator or try to put a penalty kick past Harry Gregg or Pat Jennings. Remember that it was a gentleman called William McCrum from Milford in County Armagh who invented the penalty kick. You could try to hit a golf ball further than Rory McIlroy. The ideas for interactive attractions are limited only by the creative imagination of artificial intelligence experts. I have deliberately not rehearsed a list of our sporting icons from across every sport that we follow. If I did, we would be here all night, and there is always the potential to leave someone out. However, it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the wonderful achievements of our para-athletes over a wide range of disciplines. What an example they set for others to emulate. A sports museum dedicated to our multitude of sporting icons current and past is the least that we can do to acknowledge how they have enhanced our reputation across the world and helped reverse some of the more negative images of where we call "home" and to appreciate the pleasure that their successes have given us. We must also remember the administrators that Northern Ireland has provided to major sports ruling bodies across the world. I commend the motion to the House. It commits to nothing more than an investigation of the "feasibility and appetite" of and for the project. In my last words on the topic, I will paraphrase a cinematic, graphic narrative: if you build it, they will come.

1,148 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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