The Ministry of Sports is delivering a major boost to nine national sporting bodies, with new facilities coming on stream through the National Sports Council’s (NSC) Capital Projects initiative.
Athletics, cricket, netball, basketball, volleyball, badminton, squash, beach volleyball and beach wrestling will benefit, to the tune of just under $30 million, from the ongoing refurbishment and construction of training and competition venues at three locations across the island.
During a media tour which stopped at the Wildey Gymnasium, Waterford, and Blenheim, Minister of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment Charles Griffith gave updates and timelines on the completion of five sporting sites.
Wildey is the location for a multi-purpose beach sports facility and multi-purpose badminton and squash courts, as well as the highly touted athletics track.
Situated behind the main car park of the gymnasium and obliquely opposite the Wildey Tennis Centre, the soon-to-be-completed beach sports facility will host beach volleyball and beach wrestling with an approximate capacity of 500 spectators.
The Barbados Light and Power Company was on site installing electricity during Tuesday’s visit.
Griffith explained: “This is phase one of the project. I am pleased about the way it is going. I believe it is 90 per cent completed. It is expected that this will go well in terms of us hosting tournaments.”
“Sports tourism is top of mind as always and I believe that having this facility here will add to that. It is at the snagging stage really. We are going to finish the seating and we should be good to go,” the minister added before visiting the next facility — the multi-purpose badminton and squash courts.
Situated up the hill from the aquatic centre and behind the Wildey hockey turf, the courts are expected to be completed within 18 to 24 months.
“The truth is that we cannot build a facility for every single national federation, so what we’re trying to do as much as possible [is] if we can combine sports at a particular location, then we are endeavouring to do exactly that,” the minister told the media.
“In this case — badminton and squash — we had the launch and both national federations were extremely pleased that they now have a home, so to speak.”
Griffith added that the vision for the Wildey complex is to build out the facility to ensure the sporting disciplines on the island have homes.
Directly next to the courts will be a new athletics track with facilities for field events and fitted to accommodate persons with disabilities.
Project manager Henry Taylor spoke to the ongoing construction at the track which is expected to be handed over by end of year.
“Right now, the excavation of the site had to be cut in two phases. It had to be done like that because of the amount of excavation that was involved, and, therefore, if we had not carried out the works in that manner, it would have meant that we would have had problems being able to store the top soil that we intend to reuse to fill in the areas around the track,” he said of the facility which will also feature a media centre.
Rain cut short the visit at Waterford where the Netball Stadium is being refurbished as a multi-purpose court for netball, volleyball and basketball.
The tour then had its final stop in Blenheim at the NSC grounds where cricket nets and bowling machines are in place, affording cricketers another location to hone their talents.
Minister Griffith gave a full overview of the projects and the Blenheim facilities.
“We have two concrete tracks and five grass pitches where we are hoping to develop young cricketers. The facility is at a level where the West Indies will be coming here to get in some practice. What we did not get to see today would have been the two 400 tracks. We are looking to also put six dedicated football fields in place,” said Griffith.
“At this location one of the things that we are hoping to happen in the near future is that the old National Sports Council building will be converted into a secretariat for the national federations on island. Here, we are also going to have one of those dedicated football fields that I mentioned…. Government is committed to ensuring that our sports project on island is growing and continues to expand in terms of the spend. $30 million in sports is a lot of money for an island of our size but we believe that this is a necessary investment in the future.”
rohansonnwaithe@barbadostoday.bb
The post $30M sports infrastructure boost for Barbados appeared first on Barbados Today.
