National Sports Council Wants $5K from OWTC to Use People’s Stadium for Fiestarama

For residents of Orange Walk and others, Fiestarama is one of the most anticipated and biggest event in the municipality. This year, the municipal fair has been scheduled to take place on the twenty-seventh, twenty-eight, and twenty-ninth of July. But a standoff between the Orange Walk Town Council and the National Sports Council is putting Fiestarama at risk. According to Orange Walk Deputy Mayor, Ian Cal, the National Sports Council has upped a rental fee to five thousand dollars for Fiestarama to be held at the People’s Stadium. The National Sports Council is also asking for ten percent of the gate’s proceeds. Cal says that while they are willing to share ten percent of the gate’s proceeds, they are unable to pay the five thousand dollars rental fee for a stadium that needs a lot of improvements.

Ian Cal, Deputy Mayor, Orange Walk Town

Ian Cal

“We have been in a back and forth with the sports council here in Orange Walk since last year actually. We had a couple of issues but we manage to agree on a figure. Back then it would be that we would give up ten percent of the gate’s proceeds to the sport council because every organization has its operational cost. So we said that ten percent was fair enough from the gate’s proceeds. However, this year again we were preparing the grounds for Fiestarama and we had already met with the local management team, the local sports council from Orange Walk at the stadium. We had agreed that we can use the stadium like we do every year. However this week e got an email from the national sports council telling us they have an additional fee of five thousand dollars including the ten percent from the gate. We as the council and the Fiestarama Committee do not agree on that. We will not give up the five thousand dollars. We can agree yes for the ten percent of the gate’s proceeds however the five thousand dollars we cannot do.”