National Football Museum

This is Manchester, we do things differently

Towards the end of 2009 it was announced that the National Football Museum, complete with Maradona’s shirt from the infamous “hand of God” match among other sporting gems, was to leave its current home in Preston and move to Manchester.

While I originally saw this as good news for Manchester and its local economy, my mood soured somewhat when I realised the Football Museum would mean the demise of exhibition centre Urbis. It is now perfectly clear to me that the National Football Museum is bad news for Manchester.

The reason for my change of opinion is simple. Urbis could have been something really special, but it was not. And Manchester City Council stopping at almost nothing to secure the museum represents a backwards step, as Manchester looks set to fall back on its tried and tested image in the face of difficulty. “We’re a football city we are. We’ve got the museum to prove it and everything.”

I do think it’s important we realise that Urbis was not the greatest of successes, but the reason for this lies solely at the hands of the people responsible for promoting the museum in the city and further afield.

Since my first visit, I’ve lost count of the number of high quality exhibitions I had the pleasure of seeing. I can, however, count on one finger the number of times I saw the place anywhere close to busy. Yep, you guessed it: once. Urbis’ problem was people in the city simply did not know what it was and what was inside. Even though it stuck out like a bold thumb in the city centre, droves and droves of people walked by blissfully unaware of what was on their own doorstep. As a city that is trying to grow in stature worldwide, one string Manchester needed to add to its bow was a well renowned centre for art. With no plans for another building to house displays like those which did visit Urbis (along with Channel M – whose music department were also a beacon of hope in the city), it seems as though an uncut diamond in the rough has been ditched in favour of a shiny cubic zirconia.

Words: Golibe Omenaka