Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism Dr. Ernest Hilaire is convinced that the value of the apparent lucrative financial deal with English football champions Arsenal should not be disclosed publicly.
Dr. Hilaire was questioned about the recently announced partnership at Monday’s press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister on the Castries Waterfront.
Dr. Hilaire insist that it is common practice to withhold sensitive information surrounding confidential commercial agreements while insisting that speculated figures on social media were wide of the mark. The deputy prime minister explained that disclosure of sensitive bits of information surrounding such major deals had real consequences for future state business. “You will all recall on a previous occasion; I was asked a similar question pertaining to another commercial agreement that government had signed and I indicated then that we were not in the business of putting out in public the value of agreements that were confidential commercial agreements. And I explained then, that this is not a new practice. You sit with commercial partners. You negotiate and agreement and there is an understanding that you would not make public, unless required by the courts or other statutory bodies, to make public such documents.”
Dr. Hilaire recounted similar situations surrounding the establishment of the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground in Beausejour and the Olympic Stadium in Vieux Fort, the eventual home of St. Jude Hospital after the health facility’s devastating fire in September 2009.
While he refused to disclose the actual value of the partnership, Dr. Hilaire was adamant that the deal will be of immense benefit to the island, challenging St. Lucians to come up with ideas on how best to maximize the eventual effects of the deal.
Outside of the obvious marketing possibilities, a regional Arsenal youth football academy is to be established in Castries as well as a major Arsenal summit to be hosted in St. Lucia within the next year.
The source of the funding for the St. Lucia / Arsenal partnership was not immediately clear however it was disclosed that the finance for the initiative was not part of the Ministry of Tourism’s budget but would be raised separately and would go through the St. Lucia Tourism Authority {SLTA} as was the case for other similar initiatives.
The much talked about partnership agreement is from 2026 to 2031.
Arsenal Football Club in based in South London with an estimated annual revenue of £616.6m. Arsenal was estimated to be worth US$3.4 billion by Forbes, making it the world’s eighth-most valuable football club,[10] while also being one of the most followed sport teams in the world on social media.
Estimates in 2024 placed Arsenal as the 10th most followed European football club and the 5th in England with over 100 million fans, more than 40% of which are on Facebook.