The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE development of sporting infrastructure highlighted the impact the government expects its new budget to have on the local sporting community.

Yesterday, in his 2016-17 Budget Communication in the House of Assembly, Prime Minister Perry Christie outlined his government’s plan for these improvements in its “Agenda for a Modern Bahamas.”

“We have also endeavoured to modernise and enhance the sports and cultural sector. It is important for me to say that the Government recognises the magnificent contributions of our sports heroes and heroines at home and abroad,” he said.

“In further support of sports development at all levels and in all disciplines, the Government will continue with the development of facilities at the Queen Elizabeth Sports Centre through the construction of a new National Baseball Stadium and through the construction of sports complexes in our islands, commencing with Moore’s Island, Abaco, Eleuthera, Exuma and Andros.”

In May 2013, Christie first announced that his administration “will begin the process to invest some $10 million in the construction” of multi-purpose sporting facilities in the family islands similar to those in New Providence and Grand Bahama, giving young athletes in those islands more opportunities to develop in competitive sports.

The formation of the National Sports Academies have also been at the focal point of each budget debate following the success of the “Golden Knights” at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Groundbreaking for the new Andre Rodgers National Baseball Stadium took place in November, 2014.

The Prime Minister also noted how foreign direct investment will impact these proposed sporting structures and the sports tourism industry at large.

Included in the The Tavistock Group’s  Albany Resort, and their $230 million expansion project over the next 24 months, will be a $10 million equestrian centre and a $20 million Sports Academy.

In Eleuthera, The Cotton Bay Holdings, developers of a $180 million resort, will include renovation of the existing 18-hole Robert Trent Jones Golf Course, while in the Exumas additional golf courses will be constructed at the Great Exuma Adventure resort Children’s Bay Cay and Williams Cay. The Williams Cay development will comprise an 18-hole golf course designed by Tom Fazio.

Also in the Exumas, the Stocking Island Club is set and will include a unique venture complete with a sailing school and swimming academy.

“The sailing school will provide Bahamians with instructions for mono hull sailing and dinghy sailing, both Olympic class crafts, and graduating to larger sailboats,” Mr Christie said.

The improvement to sporting infrastructure are but one segment of an extensive plan for the budget aimed at “structural reform.”

“This is but a brief snapshot of the many actions that my Government has taken over the past four years to address the significant challenges that our nation faces and thereby steer us onto a path toward a better future for all Bahamians,” Mr Christie said.

“These are not mere palliative, short-term and thus inevitably ineffective measures focused only on the span of our current five-year mandate. They represent a bold and aggressive agenda of deep and fundamental structural reform that addresses several of the grave challenges that confront our nation. They will bear fruit in the form of significant and durable improvements in the performance of our economy and the welfare of our citizens.”