The Bahamas government needs to borrow 50 million dollars to finish the Oakes Field stadium and build the necessary supporting infrastructure.
So, the $30 million dollar ‘gift of a stadium’ to be built primarily with foreign labour; sending their labour income out of the country and paying for most of the material to foreign providers, finally comes clear to one and all.
Taxpayers are going to pay for the borrowing of another $50 million dollars in order to complete the building and the infrastructure.
So, the $30 million stadium is actually going to cost $80 million.
What is the $50 million to be spent on? Maybe, someone will outline the stadium related items?
If it takes just five percent of the cost to maintain the project and another five percent to pay for the eventual replacement, then the stadium needs to make a net profit of more than $8 million annually besides what it should contribute to the government to assist in the repaying of the loan.
Unless, of course the government is going to find a free loan from China so that the $50 million does not become real money!
Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a free lunch!
The stadium is going to have to make a net profit of more than $666,000 per month or more than $153,000 per week, just to pay for maintenance and eventual replacement.
Extra money will have to be made each month to pay for the operating staff, electricity and water.
Using the rationale of Zhivago Laing and others in the destruction of our Bahamas, it will make sense to borrow the $50 million from China for a low interest rate and then bring in a few hundred Chinese workers to finish the stadium and to build the infrastructure.
No matter that they might very well charge you five percent or 10 percent more than some other contractor might charge.
We have become a nation of begging idiots! Obviously, no one even bothered to read the contract offering for the stadium- they just looked at the pretty pictures. Maybe, we should publish all potential agreements with the government using pop-up picture books, since no one reads!
The rich and powerful will find a way to be served by this boondoggle, but the rest of us will pay the price.
By: Philip P. Smith
