The Montego Bay Sports Complex has been the sports capital of Jamaica over the past few weeks having hosted a number of sporting events, both local and international.

From the Milo Western Relays which saw four world leading relays time set on February 12th to seven match days in the CONCACAF Under 17 tournament to the recent combined finals of the Milo County of Cornwall Athletics Association’s Western Champs and tomorrow’s friendly international football game between Jamaica and Venezuela, the venue has been a bee hive of activity.

Not bad for a place where construction commenced more than 10 years ago and was just officially opened last year only to be dubbed a ‘white elephant’ by Kingston-based members of the media.

A quick check will show about 10 days in a one-month span with the Reggae Boyz game and the three day CARIFTA track and field championships set for the Easter weekend. This is more ‘paid for use’ days than Sabina Park, the venerated headquarters of cricket in Kingston will see in more than a year.

Who knows what the rest of the year will bring and there is a possibility that at least one more day of track and field will come in June. There should be enough events to keep the management committee busy.

The completion of the facility is a welcomed addition to the sporting landscape and we hope other sectors of society – those involved in music festivals, church conventions and others will make use of the modern infrastructure available.

With only 8,000 or so seats available, a bit lower than the 12,000 in the original plans, it may prove to be a bit small for some activities. The organisers of the CARIFTA Games may want to look at putting in temporary seats based on the buzz on the ground and from track fans in other territories who have been waiting to return since 2002 when Jamaica hosted the IAAF World Junior Championships in Kingston.

The St James Parish Council who took over the operations of the facility last month may however have some work to do before the venue can become the preferred destination.

The football field that looked more like a beach during the CONCACAF tournament must be priority number one, with replacing the all-weather synthetic track a project that should be completed in no longer than the next two years.

If the football field is not completely dug up and relayed with the original surface then it could become the white elephant some said it would be as no one will want to play on it.

Coaches of both the US and Canadian teams that met in the CONCACAF Under 17 finals were among those who complained about the surface that started deteriorating from the first day. By the end of the tournament some observers, including members of the media, were fearful that injuries could result from the underfoot conditions.

The rains that delayed Western Champs also exposed some engineering mistakes as the grand stand leaked badly and the floors of some of the press boxes were flooded.

With my little or no engineering knowledge I would guess those flaws would not be too difficult to fix.

One thing that should be easy for Mayor Charles Sinclair and the Parish Council to fix is who they ask to represent them at the venue.

At two of the events staged recently, the Parish Council’s representative seemed less than equipped to deal with her responsibilities and at times was way too over-zealous in how she carried out her duties.