As he stood firm yesterday in his decision not to allow sporting facilities to be used for cultural shows and fetes, Sport Minister Gary Hunt received the backing of several key stakeholders in the sporting fraternity.

Responding to the attacks made against him by the fete promoters, Hunt said: ’How could Government spend millions to bring our sporting infrastructure up to international standards in order to facilitate the preparation of our athletes to compete at the highest level, and just when these investments are beginning to produce results in terms of the athletes’ performance, expose the very infrastructures to usage that would be severely detrimental to its sporting requirements. This is something for which we (the Government) would most certainly be condemned and properly so.’

He said the two uses - sport and culture - being proposed for the sporting facilities were not complementary.

’People jumping up in gay abandon (as is done at Carnival events) is certainly not the way that you preserve the highly specialised sporting fields and indoor tracks, which are amenable to contrasting multipurpose use,’ he stressed.

Hunt’s position found support.

Michael Cooper, president of the Tennis Association of Trinidad and Tobago, said use of sporting facilities for these events ’is very, very destructive. No one can argue that. And despite all the undertakings that the promoters give, at the end of the day, they walk away (leaving the damaged facilities)’.

He said there were major investments made for the Caribbean Games ’which were aborted’. He said one could not allow metal chairs on the kind of playing surface put down at Jean Pierre Complex for netball, and the same applied to the Hasely Crawford Stadium, given the kind of track and upgrade done there.

Noting that when these facilities were inspected by the international bodies, certain demands were made in order for this country to be accredited internationally, Cooper said he understood the Minister and the Ministry’s position.

’They have to decide whether they want sporting facilities of a certain level or whether they want to compromise that and throw all the investment down the drain, by opening up these venues and letting fetes and shows take place. A lot of money was spent. So if people want to talk squandermania, that (would be) squandermania. The flag would be joke compared to that,’ Cooper stated.

He said with the way the Sporting Company of Trinidad and Tobago has been investing in the various sporting disciplines, a demand was being put on the NSOs (national sporting organisations) to deliver and there was increase in demand for facilities of a certain standard.

He said references to Wembley (which is used for sport and for cultural events) did not apply, because arrangements are put in place to protect those facilities.

’We have not been able to do that. And history has shown that we do not have the capability to do it,’ he said.

He noted that in Trinidad and Tobago, when these facilities are leased, the cost to protect them are not considered and the management of the facilities do not put in place the kind of arrangements that would protect it.

’So the promoters have free rein and they destroy the facilities,’ he said.

Ephraim Serrette, president of National Amateur Athletic Association, also pointed that out at Wembley, there are over the 1,000 supervisors hired to ensure there is no damage to the facility, and there are engineering solutions used to protect it as well. He said the fete promoters make a lot of money, but contribute nothing to sport. He said if the ministry does not have the resources to protect the sporting facilities when they are loaned for shows and fetes, it had no other option than to have a complete ban on their use for cultural events. He said while he sympathised with the promoters, after the Alternative Concert and Soca Monarch this year, there was considerable damage to the Stadium.

Pat Butcher, of the National Netball Association, said they supported the policy of the ministry. She said Government had just refurbished the Jean Pierre Complex and the association had a schedule of tournaments in order to take the team back to the top.

’So we don’t want the facilities to be damaged in any way which would militate against us preparing our athletes to operate at the highest international standards,’ she said.

She said while she sympathised with the fete promoters, she believed that ’once you are selling a good product, wherever you put it the customers would go’.