The 38,500-capacity stadium designed by Populous, formerly known as HOK Sport, was to have formed the centrepiece of a mixed-use development on the 146 hecatre site and, if completed in time, would have been a venue for football matches being played in 2012.

 

But the development, which was to host football, rugby and Gaelic games, caused a political storm because of the site’s sensitive history and its remote location 10 miles from the city centre.

 

Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness have announced that the Maze/Long Kesh masterplan "will not proceed in its original proposed form and that the current procurement process has now ended".
 

In a joint statement, they said: "The 360-acre site which remains in public ownership is a site of regional significance.
 

"We fully recognise the economic development potential of this site and we are committed to exploiting this potential to the full, particularly given the economic climate we now find ourselves in.

"In order to do so, we will establish a development corporation which will take this project forward and will build on the work previously undertaken by OFMDFM (Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister) and the All-Party Maze/Long Kesh consultation panel and which will have regard to all the elements of the site including any listed buildings.

"As we seek to maximise the economic, historical and reconciliation potential of the site, we will continue to work with all those bodies interested in contributing to the development of the site."

The statement said that while a stadium on the site had been ruled out, the building of a new arena for football, GAA and rugby was still on the agenda.

It said: "Throughout this process we have been grateful to the GAA, the IFA and the Ulster Branch of the IRFU (Irish Rugby Football Union) for their work and commitment.

"As the multi-sports stadium element of the project will not be taken forward, the three sporting bodies have been asked to submit their preferred options to DCAL (Department of Culture and Leisure).

"The Executive looks forward to receiving a report on the outcome of that process and we remain committed to meeting the strategic stadium needs of the three sporting bodies."

 

The Populous scheme retained one of the prison’s iconic H-blocks, the scene of a series of Republican hunger strikes in the early 1980s, and envisaged using it as a “conflict transformation centre.