Two years and in excess of $300 million later, the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) reopened its doors during the Christmas season of 2024. The Kashif and Shanghai organised-One Guyana National Futsal Championships moved to the CASH, Homestretch Avenue on Christmas night for the completion of its Round of 16; marking the reopening of the venue since its doors were shut in 2022.
Since then, the venue has hosted the Elton Dharry Promotions Pro-Am Card, in addition to the latter stages of the Futsal Championships, which culminated with President Dr Irfaan Ali taking in the renovated venue alongside several other Government Ministers.
Sport Minister Charles Ramson Jr
Falling under his purview at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport (MCYS) Charles Ramson Jr., cited the National Futsal Championships as the perfect opportunity to reopen Guyana’s premier indoor facility.
“The marrying of the soft opening I should say, of the Sports Hall and the Kashif and Shanghai Organisation One Guyana tournament was how we planned to kick off the opening, because I mean, the Sports Hall is dear to so many people. It’s been around a long time, but we made some big investments here. We knew that we can’t be an oil and gas-producing country, one of the fastest growing economies in the world and then trying to position Guyana as a premier destination for world-class events and we don’t have an air-conditioned facility,” the Sport Minister shared.
He added, “So, it was very good to see 2000 persons in here and not a single bead of sweat excepting from the players.”
The Sport Minister added that the venue’s opening was as an amazing feeing while hinting at additional work to be done.
Ramson Jr expressed, “Have 2000 persons coming to the facility and just have a wonderful night and good, clean fun too; I think it’s an amazing feeling to have this here and also to see the transformation here at the Sports Hall. Obviously, I’ve been at it every step of the way, but it came from an idea and a piece of paper that me and our team, we sat and we worked on this two years ago and we moved it every step of the way.
The installation of bucket seats will not affect the Sports Hall’s capacity
“We needed to make sure that we got everything right at least for the particular section that we’re working on. We still wanted to spruce up other parts so that you didn’t come into a new section and an old section, but there is going to be more work to be done here and once that’s done, we have a premier facility that everybody can be proud of.”
Quizzed about whether or not capacity will be an issue when the bucket seats are installed, Ramson Jr divulged plans on how they would remedy the issue.
“We worked out the numbers. So, we hitting the 2000 number. When we did the full calculation of the space and the volume, the square footage because you know you have to move in a gradient and then we’re adding a section at the back. Hitherto, it was open, now you’re going to have stands there, just like a full arena,” the Minister divulged.
He further explained, “So, we’ve worked out the numbers; we’re satisfied we’ll get to that 2000 mark and then, if you have a big boxing match, which it’s very likely you’ll hear a big announcement about a boxing match coming to Guyana, you could easily get about 3000 persons here because of the floor space, etc. So, no, we’re not going to lose numbers, at least not significantly. We expect it to be relatively the same.”
Approximately $350 million has been expended on the Sports Hall since 2022, where the installation of air conditioning, upgraded seating, re-done floors and upgrades to the VIP box and washrooms have been the focal points.
