£800,000 spent on scrapped sports dome project

A Northern Ireland university spent £800,000 on a planned indoor sports dome in Londonderry before the project was scrapped.

Plans for Ulster University's (UU) multimillion pound dome, which was to house multiple sports, including rugby, football and Gaelic games, were first announced in 2024.

But in August UU axed the project saying it was no longer financially viable.

The university, which earlier this year announced it needed to make savings of about £25m and would be making up to 450 staff redundant, has revealed it spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on the dome project before it was axed.

UU said, in response to a Freedom of Information request from BBC Radio Foyle's Mark Patterson Show, that approximately £700,000 had been spent "on project-related activities".

Project management and governance arrangements cost the university a further £100,000, UU said.

SDLP assembly member Sinéad McLaughlin told BBC Radio Foyle the dome had been announced to "much fanfare" but it had become clear the dome was an "unaffordable project".

"But my problem is that there is legitimate questions about how we reach the position after spending £800,000," she said.

McLaughlin added: "It does seem a lot of money to be spent before they came to the conclusion that it was unviable and financially unsustainable."

The Foyle MLA said it was unfortunate "it took so long to get to that point."

According to the UU figures given to BBC Radio Foyle, the overall costs to build the dome had spiralled from an initial £16.8m to £20.1m at the time the project was scrapped

It further said that as a commercial entity the dome would have cost in excess of £1m in running costs annually.

McLaughlin said with the higher education sector in Northern Ireland in financial crisis there was "is no way that Ulster University could have sustained the upkeep of that dome."

When plans for the indoor sports arena were first announced, the 15,000 square metres (3.7 acres) dome, was described as "game-changing" for Derry.