National Stadium’s facelift almost complete

Ever since it was announced that Guyana would host, in addition to its quota of home games for the Guyana Amazon Warriors, the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL) semi-finals and finals, there has been work ongoing at the Guyana National Stadium to get it ready for the Biggest Party in Sport.
Now, as Guyana is only one week away from welcoming the CPL’s six franchises for 11 games at the Providence venue, the Stadium’s rehabilitation work is almost completed.
“If you would’ve gone to the National Stadium, maybe about three weeks ago and you looked at the field, you would’ve been concerned, because of the scientific process that we have applied to getting the Stadium, the ground ready,” subject Minister Charles Ramson Jr said after being quizzed about the Stadium’s preparedness last week.
Ramson Jr further stated, “If you go today, it is as smooth as a billiards table, it’s beautiful. We have really put a lot of effort into getting our facility in a great condition.”
At the moment, the seats in both the Red and Green Stands have been completely refurbished, with the Orange Stand almost completed.
The Minister expanded on the necessity of this exercise, stating, “There was a lot of decay that started to happen over time, especially in relation to the seats, because of it just being exposed to the weather. So, we’ve just been able to restore 80 per cent of the seats or maybe 89 per cent of the seats.”
“We just brought in some additional seats, some new seats, that just cleared from the wharf, it’s at the Stadium right now. So, we’ll be getting those installed in the next day or two.”
Also getting a facelift at the Stadium will be the washroom areas that have been notorious for leakage whenever it rains.
“As far as the public facilities are concerned, the public washrooms, because of how the stadium was built, the constant seeping of rain through the creases, started to accumulate over those years, into the public washrooms, etc, and it just really started the decay, internally,” Ramson Jr explained.
“So, we’ve had to deploy a number of engineering initiatives that would’ve seen that stop now and now we’re just restoring the washrooms.”
Upon a visit from <<<Guyana Times Sport>>>, it was evident that work has been completed to remedy this problem, not only in the washrooms but in some parts of the concession areas, that are also located under the stands.
“We are going to continue working to get it up to scratch by the first game, but I can also say that it’s something I’m going to pay serious attention to, including looking to see how we can expand the National Stadium,” the Sport Minister promised.
As such, Ramson Jr went on to reveal that other initiatives for the National Stadium are being explored, such as a super sopper and an electronic scoreboard.
He also expounded on the need to maximise the capacity of Guyana’s premier cricket facility.
He explained, “If you are in a situation where you put out on your first day and you run out of tickets. Then that’s a signal, that’s an immediate signal that says there’s a need for more supply in the system. So, we’re going to be really starting to explore how we can get some more seating capacity and VIP capacity into the National Stadium.”
The Hero CPL action will head to Guyana next week, with the first game at Providence being played between the Barbados Royals and the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, from 10:00h (10 am) on Wednesday, September 21. Later that day, the Guyana Amazon Warriors will take on the Jamaica Tallawahs from 19:00h (7pm). (Jemima Holmes)