Craigavon was identified as a possible location for a multi-sports stadium in the late 1990s.
Local politicians lobbied then sports minister Kate Hoey to site the stadium in the Co Armagh city.
Other potential locations mooted were Windsor Park, Lagan Park at Sprucefield and the North Foreshore in Belfast, according to newly released documents.
But the Maze, still being used as a prison until 2000, and Casement Park were not yet on the agenda at any of the meetings.
By the mid-2000s, Long Kesh was being promoted as the site of a new stadium to accommodate all three main sporting codes, GAA, soccer and rugby.
In 2009 this plan was officially scrapped as money was earmarked for the development of Windsor Park, Kingspan Stadium and Casement.
Following years of legal and other battles, Casement remains derelict, with the latest set back being the end of a deal with the contractors. It has been chosen to host Euro 2028 games.
The year 2000 was regarded as an “excellent opportunity” to create a new national stadium in the north.
Multiple discussions took place over the planned size and location of the proposed stadium, which it was hoped would be used also for athletic and cultural events.
Strong lobbying of Ms Hoey came from Craigavon Council and Upper Bann MLAs George Savage (UUP) and Brid Rogers (SDLP).
Following the setting up of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the creation of locally elected ministers in 1999, UUP MLA Michael McGimpsey became the first minister for culture, arts and leisure.
In 2001, Mr McGimpsey was pressed to upgrade Windsor Park, with letters from a W Kelly urging that the case for upgrading the south Belfast ground “is overwhelming”, and “can be justified on the grounds of cost, cross-community and cross-border, accommodation for other sports, location, security and precedence”.
However, another note in the file suggested that Windsor Park was “unsuitable on the grounds of poor facilities and its location being unattractive to the community as a whole”.
A working group on the future of stadia in the north and led by the Sports Council was set up in 1999, with PricewaterhouseCoopers producing a report that year.
At that stage, it was projected that £80m of capital funding and £2m of recurrent funding was needed for a central stadium.
Minister McGimpsey met representatives of the four main sports bodies, GAA, soccer, rugby and athletics, on October 25 2000, a meeting described as “inconclusive insofar as the overall commitment by all the sports to a national sports stadium was concerned, and highlighted a number of obstacles that would have to be overcome”.
“The location of the stadium would be a key factor,” it was noted.