Soca Warriors Online Discussion Forum
Sports => Other Sports => Topic started by: maxg on June 29, 2019, 05:26:11 PM
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Is Commonwealth Games bid wise?
by Guardian Media
Sat Jun 29 2019
The recent announcement by Trinidad and Tobago Commonwealth Games Association (TTCGA) and T&T Olympic Committee (TTOC) president Brian Lewis that this country had won the rights to host the 2021 Youth Commonwealth Games was met with mixed, if not lukewarm response from some sectors of the public.
And that response may have been warranted, given that John Public had not previously been aware that T&T was about to make a late bid for the event, having learned that the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee had deemed the previously chosen host country, Belfast Ireland, to be unprepared at the current stage to bring off a successful event due to political instability there.
This in itself is already a signal to the TTCGA that its own bid should have been based on a solid foundation—in this case the infrastructure by way of facilities, stadia and otherwise and the financial support to fund the initiative–since it will be no easy task.
Lewis, by his own admission, has already noted that hosting such an event will be a Herculean task. In this regard, Mr Lewis initially claims to have the full support of Sports Minister Shamfa Cudjoe and the Government, for which he was ultimately thankful. This, however, was a precursor to the Mr Lewis’ bid, since one of the guidelines for successful bids is the backing of the host country’s government, due in part to the fact that most of the funding for such activity is government funded unless corporate citizens are convinced it is worth their while.
The question that arises now, therefore, is whether the T&T Government will have the financial resources necessary to undertake the required rehabilitative works that will no doubt be necessary at some of the venues being eyed for use. The Hasely Crawford Stadium, for example, will need some work. In this regard, we are lucky that there are fairly new facilities at Couva which can host a few of the sporting disciplines.
But Mr Lewis must tell the public soon what is the TTCGA’s plan. Which venues will be used? What work will need to be done to bring those facilities up to internationally-sanctioned level? What also will be the economic and other benefits to T&T?
The latter question is critical given the continuing state of the economy. History will show that several countries which have hosted major sporting events have little to show years after except huge debt and abandoned sporting facilities. Closer to home, we have three stadia—Mannie Ramjohn in Marabella, Ato Boldon in Couva, and Larry Gomes in Arima—built for the 2001 FIFA World Youth Cup which now barely facilitate the development of our athletes and footballers.
Needless to say, this newspaper hopes the TTCGA has indeed carefully weighed the ramifications of this successful bid.
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We need a proper indoor arena. Hope the business community step in a renovate JP courts by covering both ends so we can have a decent indoor arena to host multiple events.