ST JAMES, Jamaica — Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett is promoting the newly opened Content Community Centre and Sports Complex in St James as an ideal venue to host neutral DaCosta Cup schoolboy football games.

Bartlett, who is also the Member of Parliament for St James East Central, the constituency in which Content is located, described the facility as the largest sporting complex in St James outside of Montego Bay.

“There is nothing like this outside of the city of Montego Bay in the parish of St James and I think that it’s important because it is now an alternative location for D’Cup football,” Bartlett told reporters following the official opening ceremony of the facility on Thursday.

“We certainly now have alternative facilities, plus a neutral ground where schools can play home-and- away matches. If you want a neutral ground for semi-finals and so, this is a possibility here in St James,” he added.

He said plans are in place to construct a cricket pitch at the facility to host schoolboy cricket competitions.

“I’m trying to get the cricket pitch laid in the middle there. So it can also be used for schoolboy cricket, primary school, secondary school level,” Bartlett said.

Transformed from an old broken-down structure by the Tourism Product Development Company, the Content Community Centre is equipped with meeting rooms, a kitchen, office space with full accessibility, and surrounded by a multipurpose basketball and netball court, a football field, each with spectator stands amidst well-manicured grass covered lawns and extended parking facilities.

The four-acre facility is complete with a retaining wall and security fencing and will serve the communities by hosting other activities.

Bartlett said he envisaged “that this will be the centre of various festivals, where cultural activities, a huge number of sporting events, but more importantly, that this community centre will be the focus for public education in the communities around this area”.

He added that it will enable discussions and seminars on issues within both the government and private sectors, inclusive of teaching moments that will empower residents to act.

Bartlett was particularly pleased that the community centre would benefit schools that have been struggling with the lack of a suitable playfield and a venue for cultural outreach activities.