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I still think the Trelawny Purpose Stadium is a white elephant — JHTA Head
Thursday, July 22, 2010
var addthis_pub="jamaicaobserver";
The following is a response by Wayne Cummings, head of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association, to last week's edition of Observer writer, Paul Reid's column, 'On the Sporting Edge'.
I write in relation to the article written by Mr Paul Reid on July 15, 2010 in his column "On The Sporting Edge", where he asserts that I am wrong to qualify the Trelawny Multi-Purpose Stadium a "White Elephant". Mr Reid, a prolific Sports Commentator, is widely accepted (myself included) as someone who knows his craft, however, I wonder why he felt the need to attack me on my comments regarding this stadium, built with tax payer dollars, and opened in 2007 ostensibly to be one of the host sites of the Cricket World Cup matches of that same year.
Jamaica for its efforts, won the "opportunity" to host the opening ceremony at the said Multi-Purpose Stadium and some warm-up matches at Jarrett Park in Kingston. As a Jamaican taxpayer I don't just follow the crowd, particularly those who blindly felt excitement around the Caribbean hosting the Cricket World Cup. I have always questioned the promised windfall of visitors to the region and the profits we were told would be derived from the multi-nation hosting of the event. The organizers of CWC 2007 convinced our governments to sink billions of dollars into a disjointed Caribbean-wide investment that, as it turned out, provided profits only to the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Jamaica spent about J$9-billion dollars for its part in building and refurbishing the sporting facilities as well as hosting of the festivities and except for our planned participation in the Cricket World Cup, there was no "game plan" for the continued use of the stadium after that came to an end. In three years we have heard the theory of convincing International teams to spend their winters here in training as well as the possibility of using the facility for a number of other local sporting events. The baseball teams that may come to use the facility still elude us and the Trelawny Stadium remains under utilized. Don't get me wrong, I want the place to be used, but for now it is a White Elephant and as an investor in it (through my taxes) I am very upset with the way it has been handled.
Mr Reid suggest that I should stay within my comfort zone of tourism, but I would remind him that I am a thinking Jamaican first who abhors the wasting of our limited resources. The issue is not that the Stadium should not have been built, but it shouldn't have been built only on the promise of CWC 2007's success. It needed to be thought through with a business and marketing team that was out knocking on the doors of international teams that saw Jamaica an attractive place to train during the winter months as well as other events.
Since I, like many other Jamaicans who feel cheated and "hoodwinked" by this investment, I would hate to see the realization of Mr Reid's suggestions of an expansion of these types of facilities without the requisite management plan around the use and marketing of said facilities to ensure they are properly utilized.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
var addthis_pub="jamaicaobserver";
The following is a response by Wayne Cummings, head of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association, to last week's edition of Observer writer, Paul Reid's column, 'On the Sporting Edge'.
I write in relation to the article written by Mr Paul Reid on July 15, 2010 in his column "On The Sporting Edge", where he asserts that I am wrong to qualify the Trelawny Multi-Purpose Stadium a "White Elephant". Mr Reid, a prolific Sports Commentator, is widely accepted (myself included) as someone who knows his craft, however, I wonder why he felt the need to attack me on my comments regarding this stadium, built with tax payer dollars, and opened in 2007 ostensibly to be one of the host sites of the Cricket World Cup matches of that same year.
Jamaica for its efforts, won the "opportunity" to host the opening ceremony at the said Multi-Purpose Stadium and some warm-up matches at Jarrett Park in Kingston. As a Jamaican taxpayer I don't just follow the crowd, particularly those who blindly felt excitement around the Caribbean hosting the Cricket World Cup. I have always questioned the promised windfall of visitors to the region and the profits we were told would be derived from the multi-nation hosting of the event. The organizers of CWC 2007 convinced our governments to sink billions of dollars into a disjointed Caribbean-wide investment that, as it turned out, provided profits only to the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Jamaica spent about J$9-billion dollars for its part in building and refurbishing the sporting facilities as well as hosting of the festivities and except for our planned participation in the Cricket World Cup, there was no "game plan" for the continued use of the stadium after that came to an end. In three years we have heard the theory of convincing International teams to spend their winters here in training as well as the possibility of using the facility for a number of other local sporting events. The baseball teams that may come to use the facility still elude us and the Trelawny Stadium remains under utilized. Don't get me wrong, I want the place to be used, but for now it is a White Elephant and as an investor in it (through my taxes) I am very upset with the way it has been handled.
Mr Reid suggest that I should stay within my comfort zone of tourism, but I would remind him that I am a thinking Jamaican first who abhors the wasting of our limited resources. The issue is not that the Stadium should not have been built, but it shouldn't have been built only on the promise of CWC 2007's success. It needed to be thought through with a business and marketing team that was out knocking on the doors of international teams that saw Jamaica an attractive place to train during the winter months as well as other events.
Since I, like many other Jamaicans who feel cheated and "hoodwinked" by this investment, I would hate to see the realization of Mr Reid's suggestions of an expansion of these types of facilities without the requisite management plan around the use and marketing of said facilities to ensure they are properly utilized.