The Evening Post has learned that it could cost as much as £10 million to move the museum.
Its director Kevin Moore revealed to the Evening Post that it has set a deadline of the end of October to strike a deal and has only been in discussions with Manchester City Council about the move, as well as authorities in Lancashire.

He said the attraction would close on December 31 unless ideal budget costs of around £960,000-a-year are found but is open to offers from rich benefactors to keep the site open.

Mr Moore said: "It's not a done deal at all - we are merely saying we are in discussions. It could remain in Preston and that's depending on a financing package being put together. The ballpark figure (of a move) is it could cost anything up to £10m to create. That is yet to be confirmed but there would need to be funding raised.
"I don't think they (Manchester) would be wanting to talk to us about a move if they were not confident of raising it.
"I wouldn't say it is time that it moved - what's important is the world's greatest football memorabilia is preserved for future generations and made available to the public."
The museum boss also said he would accept any donations to keep the museum in action.

He said that to stay in Preston a refurbishment costing around £3m would have to take place in 2011 before the Preston Guild celebrations and because the current displays, opened in 2011, only have a 10-year shelf-life.
He also revealed that a cut of £308,000 from the Football Foundation - backed by the football authorities and the Government - has meant that the museum has been running off a budget of around £750,000 - leading to a marketing costs of around £100,000 being fully axed.

Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) chief executive Steven Broomhead has revealed his organisation have been funding the museum for the past year.
Mr Broomhead, who lives in Hutton, said: "The difficulty is for the last 18 months the football family has been unable to support the revenue costs in Preston and there's been a funding gap of around £350,000 - that's some revenue and the agency has been supporting the museum but we cannot carry on doing that.
"I don't think it's our role to do that - if you do that for one museum then every museum will expect the same treatment. I have been a good Samaritan here.
"If they did get some money from the FA, Football League of Premier League, I would consider putting some money in - but at a lot lower level than we are doing now."

Frank McKenna, chairman of the lobbying group Downtown Preston in Business, said he understands from an inside source that Manchester City Council will be approaching European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for the cash.
He said: "Our priority is to keep the museum in Preston - we have to make sure that if we do keep the museum in Preston we start to market and support it more effectively.
"What a shame it would be if we lose this facility before the Tithebarn regeneration project."

He said his group would be lobbying the Premier League, Football Association and Football League to contribute to the museum's running costs after finding out they have not contributed as separate bodies to the attraction.
The Football Association did offer a one-off payment of £100,000 earlier this year but it was on the condition that another footballing body matched the funding.
Preston-based UCLan, which has academic ties with the museum, did not go as far to say it would help pay to keep the museum in Preston.

--OPENING THE BOOKS - NATIONAL FOOTBALL MUSEUM--
Cost of Moving to Manchester - up to £10m
Cost of Running the Museum - £960,000 per year - currently only around £750,000
Cost of Remaining in Preston - Refurbishment due for 2011 which will cost around £3m
Cost of Starting the Museum in 2001 - £15m including £9.6m from the Heritage Lottery Fund, £250,000 related to the museum being in a deprived part of Lancashire
Current Funding - £100,000 from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport; £25,000 from Preston Council, £25,000 from Lancashire County Council; £20,000 in rate relief and around £300,000 in fund-raising. A sum of £308,000 was paid from the Football Foundation but this was axed in March

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