‘IT’S DIFFICULT!’
National Stadium operators lament task of keeping outdated venue going
With the National Stadium coming under public scrutiny over the last week, Independence Park Limited’s (IPL) General Manager Major Desmon Brown says he’s not sure how long it can remain operational in its current state.
The Reggae Boyz hosted their first match of the Concacaf World Cup qualifying on Thursday with a 1-0 over the Dominican Republic. However, the sport ministry and IPL was criticised because the lights at the stadium did not gain approval from Concacaf, which meant the match had to be moved from 6:30 pm to 3:30 pm.
It also wasn’t the first time issue of lights were brought up as Cavalier FC were fined by Concacaf earlier this year during their Champions League match against FC Cincinatti in February and Opposition spokesman on sport, Wavell Hinds, took issue with the lights during the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs) in March.
Major Brown told the Jamaica Observer that until the stadium upgrade is done, issues will continue to arise with major events.
“This is a 65-year-old stadium,” Brown said. “It’s only had one, in fact, not even a major refurbishing but a half refurbishing in 2002. Take the lights, it was installed in the 1990s — they’re totally obsolete. You cannot get replacement bulbs, so the system has to be changed. All other issues we have in maintaining, we have a lot of burst pipes, blocked sewage lines, all of that.
“We have put together a proposal to do a major refurbishing at a cost of $100 million and we have meetings with the ministry to discuss how we go forward. Until [the refurbishing] is done, it’s very difficult to keep this place going. We’re trying our best but it’s difficult.”
In March, Sport Minister Olivia Grange told the Observer that the upgrade would begin next year, with Brown saying they want to start work after ‘Champs’ in March 2025.
However, the date has changed to next summer following discussions with Prime Minister Andrew Holness.
“The prime minister has made an announcement that physical work will start in August next year,” Brown said. “There’s a lot to do before then and we’re hoping we’ll get started quickly so that deadline can be met.”
Grange and Brown were optimistic in March that the finance ministry would have released the funds in a matter of weeks after the budget debate but up until last Wednesday, Major Brown was unable to provide an update.
“I don’t know how close we are but we’re still waiting,” he said. “We had a meeting with the finance ministry [on Wednesday] to see how close or how far we are.”
Brown says work needs to begin as soon as possible due to the dire state of the stadium.
“There’s very few stadiums in the world at 65 years without a major refurbishing, none. If you can name one, I’d like to know that one because they don’t exist,” he said.
“There’s a lot of shortcomings here, it’s not only the lights. We don’t meet the media standard in terms of what they require for stadiums. When we have major events, we have to rent portaloos [portable toilets] because we don’t have enough bathrooms inside here. Our doping room is a makeshift one, our medical facilities for athletes and spectators are not up to scratch, so there’s a lot of things we need to change.”
The National Stadium is set to be kept busy in the next few weeks with several major track and field events including the National Senior and Junior Championships, set for June 27-30, and the JISA Prep School Championships, scheduled for this Wednesday to Friday.
