National Football Museum - at home in Preston

A couple of weeks back now The Times columnist Matt Dickinson decided to randomly have a pop at The NFM in Preston. Unlike many others, to his credit, he had actually visited the museum yet still jumped on the bandwagon for a move to Manchester. He focused his comment on the need for it to move for a larger audience, so I felt obliged to send a letter into The Times and to Mr Dickinson himself, to make clear a few points to them. Unfortunately the Newspaper decided to print a short apologetic from a Councillor in Preston which only fueled the idea of it only being Prestonians who are in uproar of the proposed move. Below is the letter that I sent to The Times and to Matt Dickinson (who did actually personally respond - although we still fail to agree on the matter)


I write in reply to your article on Tuesday 6th October concerning the National Football Museum. Under no circumstances do I disagree with your headline of "Football treasures demand bigger audience" - alot more should be visiting a remarkable national treasure. However, it should not be assumed that the only way to increase visitor numbers is to move it into an irrelevant and unassociated exhibition centre in Manchester merely because its Manchester. Even more so, why should yet another 'national' museum have to move to London? There are over 50million people living outside of the capital in this country, and tourism does also, believe it or not incorporate the rest of England. No civilized society was ever built on just one city and was ignorant of the surrounding areas.

To blame the location is an easy cop-out option - Preston is a major city, situated on the West Coast Mainline for easy access and is only a stonesthrow away from the likes of Manchester and Liverpool. Blackpool doesn't suffer seaside tourism problems because of its northwest location only 10 miles down the road from Preston.

Therefore, what is the real problem? It is undoubtedly funding issues. The museum requires nearly £1million a year to run; this money is currently provided by Preston council, Lancashire council, the Department for Culture, Media & Sport and rate relief, with another 300k through commercial activity. Which begs the question - where is the support from The FA, Premier League, Football League & other football governing bodies? They're only too quick to force their opinion using their powers of authority, yet provide no financial backing at all! The greats of football in this country such as Sir Tom Finney & Sir Bobby Charlton (President of NFM) have come out in support of its current location. It is not the "Preston Football Museum", it is a national museum with arguably the greatest collection of football memorabilia in the world, located at the oldest continually used football stadium in the world and the 1st ever winners of the football league. Is it really too much to ask of corporations with multimillion pound annual turnovers to plug a 500k hole in the finances between them? Millions of pounds are apparently available for the move to a glass panelled centre that would require even more investment to protect the artefacts from UV rays. For the money to be available for such an expensive move when only a fraction of this could provide a long term funding package at the current location stinks of bureaucratic ignorance and bias.

With an income and support network worthy of this incredible collection, the NFM could then expand its marketing and advertise this national treasure much more, thus bringing in a greater audience whilst maintaining its rightful place at Deepdale Football Stadium.