WITH a number of dilapidated sports facilities around including the iconic George Odlum Stadium (GOS) which now houses, the St. Jude’s Hospital from September 9th 2009 following a mystery fire that destroyed the original St. Jude’s Hospital; the GOS last major sporting event held there was the Carifta Games in April of the same year.
The government of the day by all indication is putting its house in order to ensure Saint Lucia’s sportsmen and sportswomen in the various districts/towns get a state of the art sporting facility that they deserve.
The first announcement for such bold initiative was made public by Sports Consultant Don Lockerbie. Lockerbie presented a 20 minute video presentation at the annual sports awards that was held at the Royalton Hotel on Saturday 17th February 2018.
On Wednesday 22nd August, at the Department of Youth Development and Sports conference room, Don Lockerbie who is no stranger to Saint Lucia shores, updated members of the media on present and future developments that will enhance the sporting scope in Saint Lucia; also present at the briefing was Ricky Alexander, attaché to the Minister of Youth Development and Sports, Edmund Estaphane.
In unfolding Saint Lucia’s Dream, Lockerbie said, “It’s exactly a year since we started the master planning of the project. I received a phone call from the Saint Lucia Prime Minister, asking if I would make my way back to Saint Lucia to undertake with him some discussion with the Minister of Sports, Edmund Estaphane regarding the status, conditions and future of sports and entertainment facilities in the country”.
“I was asked to do an assessment with the department of sports, and think of a model that wouldn’t just allow Saint Lucia to catch up with other countries in the region and even around the world, but to create a model for the region, to do things that are unique and transcending, because sports is always transcending /social activity, a country is never happier than when your team is doing well”.
“Secondly, this is a proud sporting nation, great fans. Saint Lucians love sports, but you have been held back by poor sporting facilities. My assessment with my team, the Parker Company, and using well know American architecture company (Stewart), we embarked a year ago in accessing over 150 sports facilities in the country. In the 17 constituency, we have cricket fields, football fields, school fields, basketball, netball and a few tennis courts, the iconic Daren Sammy Cricket Ground, the George Odlum Stadium, the Soufriere Mini Stadium, and if you really want to spend a week or two running around the country at looking at all the sports facilities it’s an enormous task far less having to maintain them all and effectively this government inherited it as every government has”.
Tons of sports facilities that are effectively within the ministry, a lot of the budget has had to be spent on maintenance and repairs as opposed to the budget being spent on programmes, coaching, youth, tournaments and sporting wear. Effectively, because the venues have been poor, the budget is being spent just to try to keep them alive as opposed to spending the money on people and that’s where this government is changing the face of sports in the country.
According to Lockerbie, he was told that the ministry will be spending its budget more on programmes, officiating tournament, developing teams and sporting disciplines but what we need is venues.
Our policy was to access what is there in every constituency, look at the iconic venues, the national venues that have hosted international or major, regional, or domestic events. We finished last month but our master plan is still a work in progress. We haven’t fully published the MP but in the next few months it will be published.
The VOICE newspaper of Tuesday 28th August will present Part 2 (some of the venues / programmes mentioned in the Master Plan according to Don Lockerbie)
