Minister of Sports Rationalizes $5K Rental Fee Per Game at Civic

Earlier this week, while announcing the start of a new basketball season, the BEBL raised serious concerns regarding the cost of renting the Civic Center on game nights.  Each team is required to pay for the use of the sporting facility for every night that it has a home game.  The cost, according to the various teams, is quite expensive.  But, the facility needs to be maintained and to do so, the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing, which superintends the facility, has set the fee at five thousand dollars.  So what does the Minister of Sports have to say about the steep expense?  That’s what he attempted to rationalize with reporters when they caught up with him in Dangriga earlier today.

Rodwell Ferguson

Rodwell Ferguson, Minister of Sports

“At the moment, remember there was a contract with a foreign company and that contract expires, and so the Minister of Infrastructure Development said that it is best that he takes over the Civic Center because of the high cost.  And the Ministry of Sports, remember [the National] Sports [Council] is quasi government, so government gave them a certain percentage and it is the responsibility of Sports to figure how they can raise the additional funds that they need.  So far, since I became the minister, I don’t see any other vehicle how we are trying to raise money and when we have a game in our facilities enough fans don’t go to the games.  So it’s basically break even.  I just presented an app to Cabinet on Tuesday where I want to launch maybe next year when I get through with what I want to do to raise funds outside of what Cabinet gives us.  If that is successful, I want to raise both locally and internationally in the Diaspora.  If that is successful, then sports will be able to maintain and support its athletes and itself, but it’s going to take time and I am asking for Belizeans to contribute only a dollar a month to the app.  If you want to see it elevate, then you’ll make your contribution.  In terms of the Civic Center, I said it’s very expensive to maintain.  I think the minister had a conversation with the semi-pro basketball and he told them that he can allow them to workout free every day if they want to, but just the weekend activities is an expense that they have to cover.  And so, they’ll try to make sure that they can cover the money on the weekend and see what they can do as they go along.”