There will be no Bahamas Games in 2006.
The Bahamas Games were scheduled for July 14-22 later this year. However on Wednesday night while making his communication to the House of Assembly, the Mister of Sports, Neville Wisdom said because of the works taking place during the construction of the new national stadium, the games will not be held this year.
“In consideration of the planned commencement of construction, civil and infrastructure work relative to the new national stadium it is deemed not feasibly to proceed with the staging of the games in 2006,” said Minister Wisdom.
He said also earlier this month the National Stadium Committee advised the Cabinet of the revised timetable for the stadium project.
According to Wisdom, his ministry will have to find a temporary location for softball and baseball as the space now occupied by the Churchill Tenner Knowles Stadium and the Andrea Rogers Stadium will be used for the new project.
On Tuesday, The Bahamas and the Chinese Government signed an agreement on economic and technical cooperation for a gift of 3.5 million dollar towards the new stadium.
At the signing Wisdom and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell represented The Bahamas. Fu Ziying, Assistant Minister in china’s Ministry of Commerce and Chinese Ambassador to The Bahamas Li Yuanming represented China.
Construction on the new facility is expected to begin between June and July of this year and the work will be done in three phases.
In phase one, the focus will be on a new master plan and layout for the Queen Elizabeth Sports Centre including a new softball and baseball stadium.
A multi-purpose indoor facility will be the main focus in phase two. Phase three will concentrate on the southeast end of the QE Sports Centre opposite the Water and Sewerage Corporation on Thompson Boulevard.
By: Gerrino Saunders, The Bahama Journal
