The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said he anticipates that the country will become the nexus in regional baseball with the opening of the Andre Rodgers National Baseball Stadium.

His comments came during the opening ceremony for the stadium and simultaneous launch of the 4th annual Caribbean Baseball Cup, which is being held in The Bahamas for the first time.

The stadium was filled with hundreds of people for the event, including government officials, family of the deceased Andre Rodgers and many baseball fans and players. A feature game at 7.30pm against the US Virgin Islands kicked off the Caribbean Baseball Cup week-long tournament.

Mr Davis said yesterday that the new stadium has upgraded The Bahamas to be the hub for baseball regionally and internationally.

“Now that we have upgraded our facilities to world class standards I anticipate that The Bahamas will become a nexus in the regional baseball arena. The stadium has now positioned The Bahamas as a primary destination for all sports, tourism and underpins our sports in paradise brand,” he said.

“The new state-of-the-art stadium with artificial turf has been constructed and approved to meet Major League Baseball professional standards. It will seat approximately 5,000 spectators and include international standards, dugouts and the latest technology in digital scoreboards and sound systems,” Mr Davis said.

“I am certain that this stadium’s namesake would have been immensely proud. This cup and this stadium are testaments of the trailblazing work set down by the great first light Andre Rodgers. Rodgers, as you would have heard, was the very first person from The Bahamas to play in the Major League of Baseball,” Mr Davis said.

Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Mario Bowleg, who was also at the stadium yesterday, added on the sidelines of the event that although construction is still ongoing and the stadium is about “78 percent” complete, it is 100 percent ready for baseball.

“In my estimation I would say we are about 78 percent completed. There’s some minor stuff that needs to be done, all the paving in the road, the link is still to be completed. So, without a push I think the end of January or February we’ll be 100 percent completed. But what’s most important, it is baseball ready,” Mr Bowleg said.

When asked if the Miami Marlins, the baseball team of Jazz Chisholm Jr, a Bahamian Major League player, will be training in The Bahamas in the spring due to the stadium upgrade, Mr Bowleg said, “Not only Miami Marlins, you’re going to see many of them. I’ll be making many trips. Actually, I already had a meeting with the Mets.

“So we’re going to be travelling the world and making sure that we bring some heads and beds and most of those professionals to come here to do spring training,” Mr Bowleg said.

“The objective is to try and get some scrimmage games among the professional teams during the off season. And definitely if we could get the (Miami) Marlins here and another team that is close to The Bahamas to come down, we know that The Americans will come and watch them too,” he said.

“This stadium has to be able to be a revenue-driven organisation for my ministry,” Mr Bowleg added.

On November 7, 2014, the Christie administration broke ground to start construction on the Andre Rodgers stadium.

In January, Works and Utilities Minister Alfred Sears said more than $31m was needed to complete the stadium.

The 4th annual Caribbean Baseball Cup weeklong tournament at the stadium, will include three games a day.