The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

DESPITE reports of low attendance at some events associated with the Commonwealth Youth Games being hosted in the capital this week, federation representatives for the games yesterday applauded the Local Organising Committee for “enduring gracefully”.

Commonwealth Games Federation CEO David Grevemberg, in an interview with The Tribune, said the “success” of this year’s games should be “qualified by the quality of the events put on” and not “tickets sold or given away”.

On Thursday, the opening ceremony Tuesday night at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium was sparse, and the stadium appeared to be a quarter filled.

The beach soccer games were poorly attended on Wednesday, however, officials said there were larger crowd at indoor events like judo.

In response to the report Thursday, Mr Grevemberg said the challenges endured by the Bahamas in the lead up to and during the games have been nothing short of “horrendous.”

Mr Grevemberg stated: “We gave this country 18 months. During that time frame the country endured a massive storm and changed governments. With all of that, facilities have been prepared and are up to competition standards, infrastructure is in place and most of all, the athletes are here, comfortable and happy.

“Again, it must be noted, this was all done in an 18-month window.”

In 2011, St Lucia was awarded the 2017 CYG, but backed out of the commitment in September 2015 due to concerns with fundraising and its ability to create suitable venues to stage the overall event.

The Bahamas officially submitted a bid to host the games in January 2016.

Once the bid was awarded, the Bahamas was pressed to assemble the necessary physical and immaterial infrastructure in place to host the games.

In 2015, Louise Bell was appointed as chef de mission for Samoa 2015 in April of that year, roughly four and half months prior to those games.

Derron Donaldson was named chef de mission for the Bahamas 2017 in early June, roughly a month to go before the start of this year’s games.

Now while the position doesn’t cover the day-to-day developments or the status of the games, the appointment of someone in this role normally signifies that organisers have shifted their focus to the promotional aspects of the games.

Two weeks after this appointment, local officials erected billboards and disseminated other promotional material across the country.

On the coverage and promotion of this year’s games locally, Mr Grevemberg stated: “There has been tremendous work to get the word out there to the audience and persuade them to come out and support, those attempts are evident.

“With that noted, we recognised the Bahamas is a small island state. A large percentage of the population is at work during the week, as in the case in other countries these have been held in.”

He added: “But, both local and global coverage has been absolutely brilliant and we are satisfied. We expect as we head into the weekend, I think the Bahamians will come out in droves for the athletic competitions, which the country is known for, and with all the other events.

“There is no need to panic over this, these are tremendous games thus far and as the days go on, you can see it on the faces of the locals and the visitors, these games are something special.”

On Wednesday, Romell Knowles, managing director of the games, told The Tribune that outdoor events were not as crowded as indoor ones, something he chalked up to the intense summer heat.

Given a chance to reflect on these comments yesterday, Mr Knowles maintained outdoor events were having issues, but added indoor events like judo on the initial two days of competition and boxing as of yesterday, have made up for the low numbers for the outdoor events.

“On Tuesday and Wednesday, the judo events were sold out. As a matter of fact, on Wednesday we had to add more seats to Kendall Isaacs Gym. We had 300 to 500 people there throughout those two days, and we are expecting similar numbers (Thursday) and (Friday) for boxing,” stated Mr Knowles.

“We meet with team leaders every day, their individual reports, like our overall reports show that people are turning up at these events. Are they world-record numbers? I am not saying that, but for a country the size of the Bahamas, for events through the day, scattered across five sites, we are getting quality turnouts,” he added.

The CYG is the latest international sporting event hosted here, flowing from the former Christie administration’s efforts to boost sports tourism. The event was agreed to by the former government.

According to Minister of Youth Sports and Culture Michael Pintard, the event will cost the Bahamas about $7m to host.