Minister favours Diamond for National Stadium Site

Minister of Tourism, Sports and Culture Cecil Mc Kie favours the proposed National Stadium site at Diamond, for the erection of a synthetic track for Track and Field.{{more}}

McKie made this known to SEARCHLIGHT last Saturday afternoon, following visits to that site, as well as the Sion Hill Playing Field.

McKie, along with several local sporting officials and Area Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean of track supplier of Mondo, Michael Tovar visited both venues.

According to McKie, the Diamond site has “more scope for development.

“We, therefore, have to be looking down the road; what will happen in the next year, next two years, next ten years down the road,” Mc Kie said.

“We have to look at the other developmental areas; we have to look at the ancillary facilities; for example at Diamond, we have the Football field at nearby Brighton which was leased to the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation. This can be a warm-up field for major regional and international matches staged at the National Stadium,” Mc Kie added.

McKie said that with the preliminary discussions held last Saturday, plans have moved a step further for the placing of the synthetic track, which he sees as phase one of the National Stadium project.

The Sports Minister, in mapping out the next steps, told SEARCHLIGHT: “He(Tovar) will provide us with a quotation and a concept design; we will then look at that, make our recommendation and adjustments; he will then go back to the drawing board and give us the final design and the cost of that.”

McKie says the next consultative process with the Mondo company could be completed before year end or early in 2013.

Quizzed about funding for the track, Mc Kie stated: “We have already sourced how we are going to fund phase one of this project, because the entire project will be too much for us to handle at one time.”

Also making the site visits were Team Athletics SVG’s President Keith Joseph, his Vice President Leroy Llewellyn; President of the National Olympic Committee Trevor Bailey; Chairman of the National Sports Council Carlton James; Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Youth and Sports Lavern Grant; Chairman of the National Stadium Committee Garth Saunders; Track and Field Coach Michael Ollivierre and Rohan Thomas. (RT)