Brian Lara Stadium Flopz?

[Monkey Man]

The Sports Company of Trinidad and Tobago has debunked the claim by Princes Town Member of Parliament Barry Padarath that Friday's opening of the Brian Lara Cricket Academy was a disaster of enormous proportions.

In a media release issued on Saturday, Padarath claimed that the Tarouba facility attracted less than 2,500 patrons to witness the opening ceremony and the exhibition Twenty20 match between a Brian Lara XI and an International XI.

However, Sports Company Communications Officer Natasha Nunez said the figure quoted is totally false.

“We are not in a position to give what the official numbers were and I don't to want to be on record of quoting a figure that has not yet been officially substantiated but the attendance was significantly more than 2,500.”

Nunez said that the official figure would be presented at a meeting on Tuesday and would be subsequently made available to the public.

And an official of the Fire Prevention Department at the Mon Repos Fire Station informed Express that at 9pm their count was around 7,000. The official stated that while more patrons entered the venue he's not sure if there' going to be an updated count.

The facility has a capacity of 15,000.

In his press release Padarath labelled the event a flop and said it was an indictment on the current People's National Movement (PNM) administration and illustrated that the majority of the population was unhappy and dissatisfied with the myriad of issues surrounding this facility, resulting in them staying away.

He congratulated the people of Trinidad and Tobago for rejecting the "shed of shame" that has been shrouded in massive amounts of waste, corruption and mismanagement, but more so because it continues to remain a safety hazard to those attending any events at the facility.

Padarath also has called on the Minister of Sport and the Chairman of Urban Development Company of Trinidad and Tobago (UDeCOTT) to put in the public domain the fourth and fifth sets of independent tests done on the welds of the stadium that refutes the findings of the original 2009 Arun Buch and Gerry MacCaferey reports, which shows that the welds failed two sets of independent tests prior to 2010 as contained in the UFF commission of inquiry report.

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/20170515/news/was-lara-stadium-opening-a-flop-sportt-says-no

and it look like it didnt even have enough park for dem 7000

[Dizzy28]

7,000 seems good. Except for crucial WC qualifiers Trinidadians are apathetic to sports in general and attendances are generally low across disciplines.

For example the QPO has consistently made the Oval smaller through the building of stands holdings a fixed number of seats as opposed to open bleacher seating, removal of cycle track which was an area one could sit and demolishing of the Dos Santos Stand leaving that big open gap there. Capacity has dropped from upwards of 35,000 down to something like 12-15,000 dependent on who you ask. This gradual but significant reduction of capacity of the Oval has not been felt because there isn't that much demand for seating anyhows.

[Monkey Man]

den seems like dumb design then... what a waste!

[De Dragon]

7,000 seems good. Except for crucial WC qualifiers Trinidadians are apathetic to sports in general and attendances are generally low across disciplines.

For example the QPO has consistently made the Oval smaller through the building of stands holdings a fixed number of seats as opposed to open bleacher seating, removal of cycle track which was an area one could sit and demolishing of the Dos Santos Stand leaving that big open gap there. Capacity has dropped from upwards of 35,000 down to something like 12-15,000 dependent on who you ask. This gradual but significant reduction of capacity of the Oval has not been felt because there isn't that much demand for seating anyhows.

Biggest mistake that was made regarding the QPO.

[Numb3r4]

Why do we keep investing in sport so much?

Has it really worked out?

Aren't there other things we can do that are cheaper?

[Trinispougla]

den seems like dumb design then... what a waste!

The stadium was designed for the 2007 CWC OF warm up games. They probably thought the hype of the tournament would have extended to the warm ups which it usually does. I think the warm ups were eventually played in uwi grounds. Anyways, t20 cricket is huge and QPO charges ridiculous amounts to host matches which is a big part of the reason we don't get as much matches as say Barbados or Antigua or st Kitts or Guyana. Those stadiums are state owned (in whole or in part) and hence the rent is much cheaper. That was a big part of the rationale to build the stadium. It was meant as an alternative to QPO. If you are speaking about the lack of pitch cover from the stands, check the Galle Cricket Stadium in SL and the cricket ground in Hamilton in NZ

[eliteauto]

Friday night was indicative of "how we vote is not how we party" Very nice facility hopefully it will be well utilized.

[10-01]

Why do we keep investing in sport so much?

Has it really worked out?

Aren't there other things we can do that are cheaper?

nope sports pays d bills

[De Dragon]

Friday night was indicative of "how we vote is not how we party" Very nice facility hopefully it will be well utilized.

Sustained audiences and activities therein are the key, not opening day hype.

[sMASH]

If a rough value of $150 per ticket is used, by the 7000 utilization, that's like 1.05 million gross profit per game.
Take out the 50k for like running costs, so u have like 1mil profit.

Get that attendance twice a year, that would be 45 years to make back that 90 mil.

[j.o.e]

All this toting. Game was nice , had a very big crowd. I rather consider the talent an academy can hopefully develop if it is run as planned. South ppl love cricket, nice to have a first class ground. Even the stereotypical UNC base are the biggest cricket fans.
QPO is privately owned and historically was never intended for blacks (Indian or African) yes I'm taking it there.
Politics aside if money is spent on a facility no use abandoning it. That's just more wastage.

[pugboy]

Is Lara getting a salary from this stadium academy etc ?

[matr1x]

It had real dog inside during opening night I hear

[sMASH]

All this toting. Game was nice , had a very big crowd. I rather consider the talent an academy can hopefully develop if it is run as planned. South ppl love cricket, nice to have a first class ground. Even the stereotypical UNC base are the biggest cricket fans.
QPO is privately owned and historically was never intended for blacks (Indian or African) yes I'm taking it there.
Politics aside if money is spent on a facility no use abandoning it. That's just more wastage.

When u loose ur wuk, see price of everything raising in the grocery, have bills like wow, hadda pay more in taxes, told to tighten ur belt, then see them spending money like if it didn't come out of their own pocket, and in a way they can't recover,
We toting like junior Sammy.

[Drea]

Ambitious facility, had a great turn out based on the traffic, took an hour and a half to get there from Couva.
The event itself was good but better work on the logistics and overall planning, vendor options were poor and limited.

The stadium itself is still in need of work, where i sat some of the railings and pathways were rocking, can't say if it was poor work or the fact that the stadium sat unused for so long. But they may definitely have more work to do before getting ICC approval to host international matches.

[Chimera]

Who own qpo?

[desifemlove]

If the govt. want to gain moree FOREX, then host another T20 competition between the islands.

Other than that, what's the point of this stadium? Is it just homage to the late Manning or something? Why does it deserve to be there?

[j.o.e]

If the govt. want to gain moree FOREX, then host another T20 competition between the islands.

Other than that, what's the point of this stadium? Is it just homage to the late Manning or something? Why does it deserve to be there?

I'll only take you seriously if you think the same thing about the cycling velodrome and aquatic centre. Because I like consistency

[desifemlove]

Human beings aren't consistent. However, all infrastructure in any case whether technological, social, or physical, needs to be a means to an end. I don't see how the end in this stadium is apparent. Or is this cos i critiqued the PNM? haha. i'm not a member of either, nor do i give a firetruck what happens to them.

[Dizzy28]

If the govt. want to gain moree FOREX, then host another T20 competition between the islands.

Other than that, what's the point of this stadium? Is it just homage to the late Manning or something? Why does it deserve to be there?

I'll only take you seriously if you think the same thing about the cycling velodrome and aquatic centre. Because I like consistency

How much other velodromes or aquatic centres with a 50m pool are there in Trinidad?

[j.o.e]

If the govt. want to gain moree FOREX, then host another T20 competition between the islands.

Other than that, what's the point of this stadium? Is it just homage to the late Manning or something? Why does it deserve to be there?

I'll only take you seriously if you think the same thing about the cycling velodrome and aquatic centre. Because I like consistency

How much other velodromes or aquatic centres with a 50m pool are there in Trinidad?

The poster above said these things ONLY make sense if it earns Forex. That's my point.
I welcome all three facilities.

[desifemlove]

well sporting infrastructure is good for health, enjoyment, sporting excellence, community engagement, making new sports figures, the next Lara, Bovell, etc. We will see if these come to pass or not. That said, I still dont see the point of the stadium provided it has some tangible benefit. I do really think it's a legacy thing.

[Chimera]

I see people on fb comparing this to the "failed" airport that had cost 1.44 billion.

[Dizzy28]

If the govt. want to gain moree FOREX, then host another T20 competition between the islands.

Other than that, what's the point of this stadium? Is it just homage to the late Manning or something? Why does it deserve to be there?

I'll only take you seriously if you think the same thing about the cycling velodrome and aquatic centre. Because I like consistency

How much other velodromes or aquatic centres with a 50m pool are there in Trinidad?

The poster above said these things ONLY make sense if it earns Forex. That's my point.
I welcome all three facilities.

My only hope is that a nation we learn from our mistakes which we never seem to do. Each party commits their own version of the same mistakes. The BLA is already built so no use crying over spilt milk....except the milk has cost $1billion thus far. There is no economic justification for such a spend.

From a societal stand point there are numerous playing fields of various standards throughout the country. We could have upgraded a lot of them and leave the Oval to bid for the very little cricket that comes our way. From an Academy standpoint Govnt couldn't have partnered with UTT, UWI and TTCB who all have wonderful cricket facilities at International standards?

For those who think it just that easy to host a tournament that actually makes money, the mighty Australia- land of some of the best stadiums in the world has hosted one cricket WC since 1992, they have never hosted a Champions Trophy or any global International T20 tournaments.

Trinidad was just going to get money making matches because we built an average stadium?

[Chimera]

How much games our stadiums does even see

[Dizzy28]

How much games our stadiums does even see

Excluding domestic and regional cricket last year the Oval hosted 4 CPL matches and 1 Test Match (the one where 4.5 days were lost to a bad playing field)

This year there were 3 T20s and the possibility of 4 CPL matches.

[Chimera]

Not the oval. The 4 stadiums they built. How much action them does see?

[Dizzy28]

Not the oval. The 4 stadiums they built. How much action them does see?

In terms of international action they were three Gold Cup qualifiers at the Ato Boldon earlier this year (where TT lost to Haiti and Suriname). I can't think of any at the others (except HC Stadium).

[Monkey Man]

its a fact that the PNM will spend billions if they have to just to 'complete' these WOFT, FAILURE& DUNCE decisions they made in previous times they were in power. money that can be put in to something that would greater benefit to the people of t&t.

Next up WGTL!! lets rebuild the second hand plant a dunce went away dedicated to buy.

[dean_spleen09]

Who own qpo?

d queen . ent it name QUEENS park oval ?