The dilemma for me with football in TT is why no one has done right by football, what was so hard to sit down and do a national service to the country by putting yourselves last and the sport first? can you imagine SSFL used to fill the oval to capacity, with people sitting on the roof and on trees just to take in a game? now today the stadium empty with kids cheering from the covered stands only.
We have a pro league and it’s attendance is woeful, I remember going to conference matches and the energy and vibe was electric, the lowest tier in English football drew more crowds than a league cup final in trinidad.
this country has dropped off so very badly as it relates to quality of life. my very first pro league game in TT was a concacaf league qualifier a few years ago, after the game I expressed my disappointment as to why the attendance was so low, one guy told me that people were scared to venture out at night to watch football and the match fees were so very expensive, of course not living there I took his word as final.
the next year I went to carnival and attended a couple of fetes, one in particular was held at the same stadium and even later at night being more dangerous, and the attendance was such where you could hardly move, in other words the place was sold to capacity with ticket prices ranging from 5 times the amount of a football match to the ridiculous. this of course made me furious to think that people would rather spend money to drink and prance than to support our lads.
as I spend more time in trinidad I came to the realization that it wasn’t the people who lacked interest in the game, but it was the whole football fraternity. it was in shambles. there were no home or away teams, all the games were played outside of the community in these large stadiums, the games were poorly organized with no sport shops no regalia no vibe no songs, no car pools or community busses to bring away fans back home safely, it was a complete mess, in other words there was no football culture.
in 2017 I left trinidad for barbados after the carnival to attend a cricket match West Indies vs england, on a night flight over the jet was filled to capacity with white people, to my amazement I wondered why would so much white folks be going to barbados after carnival, it turned out that it was the blami army, a bunch of hardcore cricket fans who travels the world to support the English cricket team.
I reflected and instantly conclude that never in a million years would a bunch of hardcore trinidad sport fans be so organized as to make the trip in the thousands to support their team, not even in trinidad, let alone elsewhere, and this is as a result of the whole society, we are not as dedicated as we were 40 years ago, no one cares enough to nurture any sport, and it doesn’t take money, it takes love and pride in who you are.
In Jamaica stadiums are sold out for athletics every years. people come from far and wide to watch their favorite track and field stars and their new budding prospects, it’s even better than the pen relays with thousands in attendance, their athletics is similar to our soca monarchs and machel mondays. yet we lament when we don’t make it to the gold cup or the World Cup, do we even deserve such honor when we seldom put in the effort? we should be ashamed of ourselves.
