The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

Prime Minister Perry Christie 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 Government will begin the process to invest some $10 million in the construction of multi-purpose sporting facilities in the Family Islands that will give young athletes in these communities the opportunities to develop in competitive sports, on a similar basis as those in New Providence and Grand Bahama,” Mr Christie said.

During the press conference following the House of Assembly Budget communication, Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Dr Daniel Johnson echoed Christie’s sentiments.

“We will continue to build on the great pillars of nation-building not just in Nassau but in the Family Islands where we in the Ministry of Sports feel that the future lies in these islands for tremendous growth among these young people,” said the sports minister.

“On the youth front you will see in this budget a great deal of headroom for productive programmes for young people with immediate effect. I think you will see the most innovative sports programme ever undertaken in the Bahamas,” he said.

“The Prime Minister announced today that we will be building sporting complexes in the islands that will attract major camps from overseas and local sports academies which will transform those communities.”

Dr Johnson said a sports development programme, being dubbed ‘From the Playground To the Podium,’ will be unveiled later this summer. He said the programme is designed “to make sports fun again” and encourage everyone to come outside and be active in order to foster better community spirit and active family lifestyles.

“We are focused now almost exclusively on developmental programmes. Programmes we call ‘From the Playground To the Podium.’ It is a wonderful programme we will unveil later this summer, designed at making sports fun again and encouraging everyone to come out and do something. As young as two, we want them back outside. So we are trying to bring some semblance of community spirit back into our lifestyles,” he said.

The development of sporting facilities and the corresponding business of sport in the Family Islands were key issues to take center stage during the 2013/2014 Budget Communication in the House of Assembly yesterday.

This year, both the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations National Championships and the Bahamas Baseball Federation’s Andre Rodgers National Championships will be staged in Grand Bahama, but Dr Johnson said his administration will seek even further expansion.

Keeping with the theme of guiding the Bahamas toward the “business of sports,” Dr Johnson said the development of junior programmes across the country will be enhanced with the establishment of a National Sports Academy.

The notion of bridging the developmental gap between New Providence, Grand Bahama and the Family Islands was one Christie had mentioned consistently in recent months, most notably when he offered his congratulations to the Bahamas men’s national beach soccer team.

“The great tragedy of sports in an island-nation is that the people who are selected generally to represent their country come from the islands where there are facilities and when you look at the islands you really speak of Grand Bahama and New Providence,” Mr Christie said.

He said we must “begin the process of putting sports facilities” in Abaco, Eleuthera, Andros and Exuma. “These are islands where we are proposing to address right now. We have to find a way to begin the process of establishing a sports complex in each island, reflective of what is at the sports center in New Providence.”