A Master plan to make the Bahamas the regional leader in sports tourism was unveiled yesterday.
The Sports Centre Redevelopment Project will create a “world-class international venue that will attract sporting and entertainment events to the Bahamas,” say proud officials.
The plans were revealed at a briefing session yesterday morning at the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture headquarters on Thompson Blvd.
Upon completion, the complex will include:
- A new indoor multi-complex centre for basketball, volleyball and gymnastics.
- A police station.
- A healthcare and administration building.
- 12 new tennis courts.
- Diving facilities at the aquatic centre.
- The hot rod racing track will be relocated, which will include a sound barrier for the protection of the surrounding neighbourhoods.
- Softball and baseball stadiums.
- An American football field.
- A nine-hole golf course.
- A venue for the Special Olympics.
- Cafes and concession areas, and an athletes’ village to accommodate those travelling to the Bahamas.
Nick Dean, principal of Integrated Building Services (IBS), the engineering design and consulting firm heading the project, said the civil infrastructure will be completed first to set the stage for the complex.
This will comprise site demolition, improved road network and parking, traffic and storm water management, sewers, water distribution and power, landscaping and upgrading the Yellow Elder Waste and Water Treatment Plant (WWTP).
“The primary object for the first phase of the project is to provide adequate support of the new stadium,” Mr Dean said.
Phase one of the project, which is hoped to begin in two weeks when construction bids for the project are decided, will include the building of new roadways and widening of Yellow Elder way to four lanes for traffic management, environmental management of Big Pond to mitigate as much as possible the effects of works, the clean up of the dump site by NIB and finally expanding and upgrading the treatment capacity of the Yellow Elder WWTP so that water can be reused.
