Griffith: No billion-dollar sports complex
...not when players have to dip in their pockets to represent T&T
BY Mark Pouchet
Tuesday, June 14th 2005
The recent announcement by Government of a $850 million national sports complex has sparked much public reaction as to the viabilty and wisdom of such a project at this time.
Among those voicing their opinion on the matter is Captain Gary Griffith, a former Trinidad and Tobago Hockey Board (T&THB) vice-president and national team manager (1998-2002).
In a letter to the Express, Griffith has lashed out at Government over the multi-million-dollar elite sports and training complex to be constructed at Tarouba, saying the money could be better spent by ensuring national athletes don't have to dip into their pockets to represent their country.
Griffith argued that Government neglected to conduct a Cost Benefit Analysis of the Tarouba facility, adding that the project is unlikely to be self-sufficient.
"The sudden, non-budgeted approval for a sports training facility that will eventually cost over $1 billion, or maybe even about the same cost as the much-talked about Piarco Airport, again shows the professionalism of our Banana Republic-styled way of thinking in politics," Griffith declared.
"It is quite obvious that absolutely no Cost Benefit Analysis or proper needs assessment was done to justify this facility by a Government that constantly criticised the construction of four stadiums (for the 2001 Under-17 World Cup) each at a cost of less than $100 million, yet they now find justification to construct a training facility to be built in a sparsely-populated area, inclusive of a 'practice' cricket facility with a seating capacity of over 20,000 that will never see a crowd of over 1,000 turning up there, as the only time you can get numbers in excess of 10,000 at a cricket game is at the One Day Internationals, and these games will still be played at the Queen's Park Oval," Griffith pointed out.
He stated Government is using the 2007 Cricket World Cup to attempt to justify the huge expenditure on the $265 million Brian Lara Stadium, a facility that will only be used for warm-up and first round matches in the World Cup.
Griffith believes athletes, who he said had to hold cake sales, raffles and go "begging" for money, will be better served by Government's funding of their national outings.
"We are still in a country where almost every amateur sporting discipline continues to be plagued with having to demand that our national players have to financially contribute to represent their country," he emphasised.
Griffith termed as "ridiculous" the practice of Government's small contributions and mandate to national bodies to pay the remainder.
"This mandatory financial contribution is then inevitably thrown on the players themselves, as in most cases amateur sporting disciplines are mostly coordinated by amateur sporting bodies, hence aspects such as self-sufficiency are out of the question, so the burden is placed on the poor national sportsman, who is now forced to pay his own way to represent his country, or stay at home," said Griffith.
He added that that undesirable situation-citing the example of the 2001 Pan Am World Cup Qualifying national indoor hockey team he managed-severely affects the morale and self-motivation of the players "as they spend their time wondering, sometimes up to 48 hours before departure, whether they are indeed travelling or not because of financial constraints".
Having stated his case, Griffith said he is not totally against the idea of the $850 million project-just not at this time.
"I am not saying that such a billion-dollar sport training facility is of no value to our nation, but we need to get our priorities straight," he argued.
"And if our nation is now so filthy rich that we can spend over $1,000 million for a sports facility that will be an inevitable white elephant, then we must ensure that our national sportsmen and women must NEVER be forced to put their hands in their pockets to represent us again."
That means, according to Griffith, providing them with stipend for travelling to games and training; providing them with suppliments and vitamins, medical insurance plans whilst training and at all tournaments; purchasing of uniforms; and, above all, "not having the least concern about financial shortfalls prior to an international tournament.
"This should cost the Government no more than $100 million per annum for all sporting disciplines," Griffith suggested, before concluding: "which is a drop in the bucket as compared to a billion-dollar stadium that will be empty most of the time".
