Preston set to Lose National Football Museum

jc4lab

Ever been.? If not its well worth seeing..Manchester look favourites to pinch it however...Is this a good Thing?

a_n_t

it is for me, i'll probably go now.

nwallace

Sounds a bit like moving the Scottish national football museum from Mount Florida to Edinburgh because more people visit Edinburgh than Mount Florida.

It's in Mount Florida because it is the home of Scottish Football, just as Preston is the home of English Professional League football.

disgruntledgoat

Bag o Crap. Preston is the home of professional football, if people love the game that much, surely they can be arsed to visit a city on one of the country's major motorways, witha mainline train station.

northernneil

as long as it doesnt go to old trafford - not even the original home of the team of whose name I shall not speak

passout

It's a shame - Preston, as the home of professional football, should have it. Manchester has enough 'stuff' already. That said I've been twice and it was pretty much empty both times - that can't continue.

CHRISNOIR

It would be a shame - my missus has lived in Preston for a couple of years now and I'm getting quite fond of the place. Although I must admit I wasn't actually aware of the museum until six-months ago... :oops:

Mothyman

..we need it in Norwich...

RichN95.

While Preston has excellent football credentials, it's not a tourist hot spot. Any English Hall of Fame should be at Wembley. Not least because the Wembley experience for Cup Finals pales into signifigance to the Millennium (according to fans not my bias self) so it needs some help.

verylonglegs

Football didn't exist before 1992 and the creation of the premier league did it? At least thats what sky sports would have me believe :roll:

What are the reasons given for moving it? If it has to be moved then I'd rather it wasn't to London just for tourists who don't realise there is more to the UK than London.

nwallace

Next Up V&A reverse decision to have an outpost in Dundee, because no one really goes there. Moved to Fort William because people actually go there despite there being nothing to do there.

DavidBelcher

disgruntledgoat wrote:

Bag o Crap. Preston is the home of professional football, if people love the game that much, surely they can be arsed to visit a city on one of the country's major motorways, witha mainline train station.

Absolutely. And (a) with a potentially huge catchment area from the Manchester/Merseyside conurbations plus (b) only a short journey from one of the country's most popular seaside towns. With improved publicity I'm sure they could bump up the visitor numbers considerably.

David

passout

I'm sure that they've thought of that. Some visitors will make the effort but many more won't. When it comes to tourist attractions there is a 'critical mass' - it would be Prestons only popular attraction and not enough by itself to pack them in I suspect. Old Trafford is already a much more popular tourist attraction, next to the Lowrey, Imperial War Museum, Designer Outlet.....

I fear poor old Preston is doomed to lose it's only National Museum. There are some interesting local ones though. Anybody been to the Barrack Museum in Fulwood or the Harris Gallery/Museum? Both worth an hour or two of anyones time. My kids love both of them as they have dress up boxes and Fulwood has soldiers & tanks. Free family fun!

spen666

disgruntledgoat wrote:

Bag o Crap. Preston is the home of professional football, .....

what's your basis for this statement?

Its interesting to note that the first registered professionjal club was not PNE, but Blackburn Rovers!

In January, 1884, Preston North End played the London side, Upton Park, in the FA Cup. After the game Upton Park complained to the Football Association that Preston was a professional, rather than an amateur team. Major William Sudell, the secretary/manager of Preston North End admitted that his players were being paid but argued that this was common practice and did not breach regulations. However, the FA disagreed and expelled them from the competition.

It was well-known that Sudell improved the quality of the team by importing top players from other areas. This included several players from Scotland. As well as paying them money for playing for the team, Sudell also found them highly paid work in Preston.

Preston North End now joined forces with other clubs who were paying their players, such as Aston Villa and Sunderland. In October, 1884, these clubs threatened to form a break-away British Football Association. The Football Association responded by establishing a sub-committee, which included William Sudell, to look into this issue. On 20th July, 1885, the FA announced that it was "in the interests of Association Football, to legalise the employment of professional football players, but only under certain restrictions". Clubs were allowed to pay players provided that they had either been born or had lived for two years within a six-mile radius of the ground.

Blackburn Rovers immediately registered as a professional club. Their accounts show that they spent a total of £615 on the payment of wages during the 1885-86 season. It was revealed that top players such as James Forrest and Joseph Lofthouse were being paid £1 a week.

In 1887 Sunderland beat Middlesbrough 4-2 in an early round of the FA Cup. Middlesbrough protested that three of Sunderland's players (Monaghan, Hastings and Richardson) were living in Scotland and was lodged at the Royal Hotel at the club's expense. In January 1888, the Football Association examined the Sunderland books and discovered "a payment of thirty shillings in the cash book to Hastings, Monaghan and Richardson for train fares from Dumfries to Sunderland". Sunderland was kicked out of the FA Cup and ordered to pay the expenses of the inquiry. The three players concerned were each suspended from football in England for three months.

The decision to pay players increased club's wage bills. It was therefore necessary to arrange more matches that could be played in front of large crowds. On 2nd March, 1888, William McGregor circulated a letter to Aston Villa, Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End, and West Bromwich Albion suggesting that "ten or twelve of the most prominent clubs in England combine to arrange home and away fixtures each season."

John J. Bentley of Bolton Wanderers and Tom Mitchell of Blackburn Rovers responded very positively to the suggestion. They suggested that other clubs should be invited to the meeting being held on 23rd March, 1888. This included Accrington, Burnley, Derby County, Notts County, Stoke, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Old Carthusians, and Everton should be invited to the meeting.

BTW isn't the museum, the national football museum, not the national professional football museum?

Perhaps Sheffield has a better claim as it is home to the oldest football club in the world