City Centre arena faces continued woes
It is a building that seemed cursed from the day the first pile was driven for its misplaced foundation. Almost two decades later the Belize City Centre still has its share of woes. Patrick Jones has more.
Patrick Jones
“From the outside, it looks like a pretty good facility. But appearances don’t always tell the whole story. Behind these walls, there is a seemingly endless headache for the people who run the Belize City Centre.”
Marshall Nuñez, Chairman, National Sports Council
“There are many things that are wrong but they could have been worst, so we won’t dwell on the things that are bad. What we want to do is look at how we can correct the things that are wrong at this point.”
The list of what’s not right with the multi-purpose complex is nearly a mile long. Let’s start with the basketball court. Although it has a life span of fifteen years, Nuñez says the two hundred thousand dollars facility is already starting to deteriorate.
Marshall Nuñez
“The manufacturers say that this court should be stored in cool conditions. That does not exist out here. So one, we’ll have to see how we could try and cool the place firstly to prolong the life of this basketball court.”
But cooling the building is easier said than done as a built-in system that is supposed to do the job, does not function the way it should.
Marshall Nuñez
“No, they aren’t working. I’m not certain if they have ever worked and I think there should be a cheaper and more creative way of how we can ventilate this place. So we will be looking at doing that.”
In the meantime, Nuñez says that a recommendation they are considering is not to cover the court with the vinyl covering but to leave it. That could explain why, long after the basketball season ended, the court is still in place and endured several public events over the September holidays, which certainly did not help the situation.
Marshall Nuñez
“Oh absolutely not. I think tons of weight was on that court over the holidays and I need to say here that they were given the authority and permission to use the facility from the previous council. But these facilities, or the court is not designed for this type of weight so that will definitely have a major effect on the life of this court. But what we want to do is to try and maintain it from here and not have that kind of weight on the court for long periods of time.”
One thing for sure Nuñez says, is that maintenance will play a big role in determining whether we’ll have a first class basketball court in the future, or just memories of it. As to the building itself, Nuñez says that the leaks have been reduced to drips freeing up the council to spend more time dealing with other problem areas.
Marshall Nuñez
“Let me say this, that at the Sports Council we believe that if we can structure sports properly and have it accomplish the things that are its major objectives: contributing to social problems, contributing to the economy as a self sustainable industry, we can attract private sector support. And if we can attract private sector support we can do anything with these facilities. So that is our major objective at the Sports Council.”
Patrick Jones
“It is with those objectives in mind that the Sports Council will be meeting with the various associations later this month, to strategize on how football, basketball, softball and other sporting disciplines can each get a fair share of the already scarce revenues, while at the same time keeping the fans satisfied.”
Marshall Nuñez
“We are having a general assembly of all the associations meeting with the Sports Council on the twenty-fourth of October. That for us, the Sports Council is our biggest mode of consultation with all the various associations and out of that we want to set our policies, set fourth our calendar of events, maybe on a short term and medium and long term basis so that we could have all the competition going in unison. Instead of having everything at the same period, instead of diverting the resources that the sports attract, have them supporting one at a time and get maximum benefit from each one.”
Patrick Jones
“Nuñez says that while government’s commitment to the development of sports remains strong, it will take equal interest from the other players in the industry to make the idea work. Patrick Jones for News Five.
Officials believe that taking up the basketball court may do more harm than good as some of the original bolts are either missing or were damaged in the original installation.
