The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Complete Sports Management has joined forces with the Mid-American Conference to create the first of six consecutive Bahamas Bowl division one college football games to be played at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium.

At a joint press conference with the above entities, the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, the National Sports Authority and Atlantis resort, plans were revealed for the bowl that is slated to begin in December, 2014. It’s the first time that such a game will be held by MAC outside of the US.

The deal was secured by Lea Miller, president of Complete Sports Management, who said they have combined “people, passion and possibilities.”

Miller said they want to create an environment that will engage the Bahamian community with their visiting student population that will be coming down to cheer on their respective teams in the bowl championships.

She praised George Markantonis, the president and managing director of the Atlantis resort, for believing in their dream to bring an additional event to Paradise Island and the Bahamas to add to the Battle 4 Atlantis Division One men’s basketball tournament that is scheduled to return over the weekend of November 28-30.

The NSA and the Commissioners of the MAC, Mountain West Conference, Conference USA and the Sun Belt Conference are partnering with Complete Sports Management to make the Bahamian Bowl a reality.

Representing NSA chairman Leroy Archer, deputy chairman Anton Sealey said that they are excited to be able to play host to the college football game. “We are confident that our venue at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium will be a worthy home for the Bahamian Bowl and we assure the commissioners that they will find a cooperative staff and a venue that is fully equipped and prepared to stage this marquee event,” Sealey said.

Speaking on behalf of Wilchcombe, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Tourism, Rev Harrison Thompson said they are looking forward to the benefits for both the Bahamas and the young people in the country.

“Our ministry is focused on developing sports from a touristic standpoint,” Thompson said. “Our ministry is committed to ensuring that the Bahamas becomes the sports capital for tourism in the world. We have embarked on several projects over the last several weeks with the Miami Dolphins, the Miami Heat and now we have the NCAA.

“We are assured that the Bahamas will reap great benefits from this collaboration from our partners and we hope that at the end of the day, when we become the sports capital, we will have more than just NCAA football coming to the Bahamas, but we will have other NCAA sports coming.”

Last year, Dr Johnson said the majority of people from North America have travelled to the Bahamas for sports-related activities and in the most cases, they travel with their entire families for the sporting activities.

“We hope that within two years, the Bahamas will be the number one sports tourism destination in the world,” he said.

Since the transformation of Hog Island to Paradise Island, Dr Johnson said the Bahamas has been able to engage in the narrative of sports by bringing in teams, athletes and persons who follow them to help build the bridge between the Bahamian people and the visitors to the Bahamas.

Jon Steinbrecher, commissioner for MAC, said over the last year, they have been working to make the Bahamian Bowl a reality.

“It takes three basic things to have a bowl game. It takes a great destination, it takes some hotels and a very nice venue. You have all of that,” he said.

“But the intangibles is the community of people who bond around the event, so I know we have all of the ingredients here for a great Bahamian Bowl game.”

Since the inception of the Battle 4 Atlantis, Steinbrecher said MAC has been involved and they are now looking forward to the expansion of that interaction with the launching of the Bahamian Bowl by its 16 member colleges and universities throughout the United States.

Craig Thompson of the Mountain West said when they first came to Atlantis to talk about the possibility of the Bahamian Bowl, they were delighted to see how everything has come together with the Bahamian government, the NSA, Atlantis and Complete Sports Management.

“The Bahamas has all of the necessary ingredients for a successful American collegiate football bowl game,” he said.

“We have the chance to do something special here and I’m not only talking about football, but the opportunity to expose the young men and women who travel here to a country that they may have never heard or known about.”

And when the Bahamian Bowl is contested, Thompson said they will ensure to integrate the Bahamian tradition and culture to make it a truly spectacular event.

Britton Banowsky, commissioner of Conference USA, said there is a good cross section of people, energy, spirit and vision in the Bahamas that should intertwine for the next 10 years to make the Bahamian Bowl an exciting event to stage in their sporting calendar.

Through a rotation over the next six years, MAC will host a different team from the various conferences to play in the Bahamian Bowl game every year. The Ministry of Tourism as well as Atantis are the initial sponsors, but Miller said over the coming months, they will make further announcements about sponsors and the media companies that will be coming to broadcast the event on national television.

It’s anticipated that some eight to 10,000 people will be coming to participate in the game, but Miller said they will ensure that the national fabric is maintained by allowing sufficient Bahamians to come out and view the game as well and that is why she noted that everybody is making a concerted effort to ensure that it succeeds.

Before the press conference was completed, Dr Johnson presented Markantonis with one of the Bahamian uniform jerseys that Team Bahamas wore at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, England, as he expressed the gratitude on behalf of the Bahamian public for what he has done and is doing at Atlantis.