Dr Friday supports Arnos Vale Sports Complex upgrade

Leader of the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP), Dr Godwin Friday said his party supports the development of the Arnos Vale Sports complex even though the cost of the upgrade is in the millions.

The Complex was upgraded for the staging of the 2024 ICC Men’s T/20 World Cup games this month.

On May 1, 2024, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves placed the original budget for the upgrade at EC$33 million but revealed the revised figure was EC$38 million.

Head of the Local Organising Committee, Michael Findlay, during a press conference to provide updates on the country’s readiness for the competition, explained that a tremendous amount of repairs and upgrades had to be made which resulted in the budget being exceeded.

Speaking on HOT 97.1 FM’s AM Mayhem programme on Tuesday morning, Dr Friday said he was happy to see a very gripping game last Friday June 15, 2024, and described the attendance at the game as “good”.

“… I’m glad to see we have the cricket here…we had to invest in the thing and some people complain about the amount and so forth.

Obviously, it’s a poor country and we have to always be concerned about that but the plan is really for us to make this investment,” he added.

“It’s an investment in the future…it’s not an investment in world cup cricket,” the Opposition leader told radio listeners.

He said Vincentians should enjoy the cricket events while they last, but we have to make sure that the investment at Arnos Vale is something we have invested in for the future.

“That’s what we’ve been saying all along. Because, you know, part of our plan has been, we talk about the four pillars of the economy, and sometimes people don’t get the connection. But that’s one of the areas that we’re looking at, is the saying, how do we leverage our arts and culture? Carnival being one component, a major component of it, and also our sporting facilities, our athletes and so forth, and give them opportunities to develop, but also to develop sports tourism, and of course, we have to invest in facilities to make that happen,” Dr Friday said.