As the 2007 Cricket World Cup (CWC) event draws to a close, with the hosting of the final in Barbados on 28th April, it is perhaps now time to analyse in-depth, exactly what economic benefits it has brought to the nine hosting countries.
Much discussion has taken place concerning legacy benefits and infrastructural improvements.
But in the case of Barbados, many projects slated to be ready for the event, simply have not been completed in time to capitalise on anticipated additional visitor numbers.
The widening of the main highway, the rebuilding of Barbados’s second most popular attraction, Oistins Fish Fry, and a new vendors area within walking distance of Kensington Oval, Baxter’s Road are just three examples.
Yes! We now have a new stadium capable of holding 28,000 people, but with thousands of seats totally exposed to the elements and no lighting, it is difficult to envisage what it will be used for to justify the cost of construction.
During the recent West Indies versus England game, I witnessed literally hundreds of fans leave the ground after midday because they could not find shade, even after paying up to US$100 per ticket.
And that’s with about 23,000 of the 28,000 seats being filled.
Many simply will not be prepared to endure the same unrelenting sun for a five day test series.
And what of the anticipated visitor arrival numbers!
As recently as just three weeks ago, Barbadian Minister of Tourism, Noel Lynch was predicting ’90,000’ long stay visitors for the week of the final plus another ’75,000 cruise ship passengers’.
Chief Executive Officer of Barbados Port Inc, Everton Walters, whilst addressing the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association in December ‘estimated about 700 yachts would dock in Barbadian waters’.
Up until this week Freida Nicholls, head of marketing and public relations at the port, said ’30 yachts had been cleared at Willoughby Fort since April 11th and more were expected this week’.
The Government borrowed US$15 million to charter cruise ship Carnival Destiny for a nineteen day period, but has struggled to fill the ship as a floating hotel, while land based accommodation providers have endured one of the worse winter seasons on record.
In an attempt to reduce the massive chartering losses, the Barbados Tourism Authority has been offering Caribbean people, cabins on the Destiny for as little as US$170 per night for two persons.
Of course, any informed tourism player, knew these very speculative figures of ’90,000’ long stay visitors and ’75,000 cruise ship passengers’ were totally unrealistic and some of us have been saying so for months.
But the media and the general public seem to have blinded by the rhetoric and not stopped to question, that even filling all our various land based accommodation options, Barbados is only actually capable of housing about 17,000 persons.
Over the next few weeks, I am sure much finger-pointing will be going on to see exactly what the negative financial implications are.
Let us hope we can learn from our mistakes.
Adrian Loveridge
Barbados
Barbados Free Press 
Mr. Loveridge:
How close to the 90,000 plus 75,000 did Barbados reach? I know its not over ’til the fat lady sings, but in your estimation, what will be the ball park figure?
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Don’t rush it! Let the figures gather properly.
As earlier said, the complete history of this will not be fully written until all down in July or so, when everyone’s account of The Debacle will then be in.
Adrian
Where were you to actually witness the hundreds leaving the stadium…….. or is this another case of FICTION on your part
Is it remotely possible those hundreds leaving Kensington after midday were doing what a few of us normally do after midday….get lunch?
A summing up cannot possibly be accurate when the major event of the tournament, the final, has not yet taken place. Or is it that conclusions already formed are so hardened they will not admit a little softening based on any information or occurrence that will tend to be contradictory?
Actually, a friend of mine who has been to cricket indicated that tickets which said “covered seating” were really only covered after 3:00 pm when the sun “shifted”… I guess that’s what happens when the seating is categorised from England (or wherever).
————–
“…the complete history of this will not be fully written until all down in July or so…”
Do you mean July this year? or 2037?
I think that it would be fair to say that whatever the figures are for the gate on Saturday CWC can and will deemed a failure throughout the region, so many errors compounded the flaws that Mottley Owing and Lynch created in the very startup that it was only well past the halfway stage that they conceded their errors of CWC and attempted to alter the course of proceedings a case of too little too late.
We could detail the errors that Mottley, Owing and Lynch created but this has been well documented on this site by many contributors so I need not revisit them only to say we are yet to see these 90,000 people in the island and not to mention the 75,000 on the 28 cruise ship and so far they are 20 visting yachts in Carlisle Bay we are still awaiting the remaing 680 to come in before Saturday, and we are still to get word from Lynch that he knows abot the $ 15 mill loan that gov’t did to lease the Carnival Destiny.
You see these are some of the lies that this administration tell but then will come back and tell you they never said so, thes are just a pack of compulsive liars IT WASN’T ME MOTTLEY being at the head of this in this department of liar of mega propotions with Owing etal following very closely behind.
I leave the time line open to you!
I was hoping for July 2007, maybe even July 2008 at the latest,
but you have now opened quite a Pandora’s Box by suggesting that it might indeed be l-o-n-g term!!! I dunno.
??
Please do state ‘another case of fiction’, just point at one single comment you can disprove.
YES! I was there, and if you left the stadium you had to have your ticket stamped and obtain an wristband to return.
There were different areas to leave, one which offered NO RETURN (lunch or not) and the others (s) were you got the stamp and wristband.
??, you really are going to try a lot harder!
cs33ca
To obtain close to realistic numbers, I had called on the Hon. Mia Motley to release the figures for the CariCom visas issued by nationality.
That way we could at least get an idea of how many Indian and Pakistanis that applied for visas but then did not travel.
Inkwell
“A summing up cannot possibly be accurate when the major event of the tournament, the final, has not yet taken place.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
OK, this seems logical, but this is only one single match.
A full Kensington Oval at 28,000 plus mutiplied by $60.00 average ticket price = $1.68 million plus.
OK, this is a great deal of money. I have never seen so much in my life.
But so to is $120 million or whatever was spent on Kensington …. and I definitely have never seen so much money in my life.
Lynch Disaster, Mottley Disaster, Owing Disaster Lynch Disaster, Mottley Disaster, Owing Disaster got the point yet these are the ones who put us in the dire straights that we find ourselves in today but they are yet to concede that their lack of proper planning and thought processes are in anyway to blame for this fiasco to remind you what they did wrong Visa requirements, chartering Carnival Destiny etc etc, building a stadium that when they remove the temporary seating the net increase is about a 1000 seats these 1000 seats are at a cost about $ 300 mill does this make any sense at all????
When I listened to Lynch on his welcome speech at the airport for the air India flight this man is living in another world when he states that this is the start of a viable airlink for trade and tourism come Lynch can you see Indians leaving India to fly for 17 hours to Barbados when they are places that much cheaper and closer to India, these flights are not even full now for the thousands that supposely bought tickets for cricket and have not attended but you really want us to swallow your nonsense about a sheduled service ???
Who is paying to operate this sheduled service we the taxpayers of this island???
If you consider that we have hotels here that had 10 Indian guess stay for 3 days and check out of the hotel and get on flights back to India complaining that Barbados was too expensive, do you really feel that the averageIndian can really afford a holiday in Barbados???
if u think 1.68+ million dollars is ‘a lot of money’ you haven’t been supermarket shopping in Barbados.
feeding a family of six…that money might *might* last you… a year?
……… still, I have never seen that much in my life!!
adrian
are you saying that 22,000 did not attend the match last saturday?
Although Adrian Loveridge’s desire for stock taking is to be fully supported, it really needs to be done when all of the CWC matches are over, even though the final wont change the overall result. The mistakes along the way in terms of organization, structure, scheduling, transport, marketing, etc. are many. However, a true stock taking needs full information from all the directly interested parties, ICC, WICB, LOCs, Chris Dehring, Caribbean governments, and more. It’s a subject that almost warrants something like a full Commission of Inquiry. The issue are very important and the costs of the tournament have been very high. If the full facts are not brought out, then the loss will be higher in terms of being able to draw the right lessons for the future, and that goes beyond cricket.
Adrian L,
I can challenge you on your statement re WI Vs England for I WAS actually there and certainly saw none of the departures you profess as happening. Again I state another case of FICTION!
I think the important point is not whether or not fans left, but whether value is being given for money (in this case, high prices paid for some tickets in “covered” areas really should guarantee seats that are in the shade). As someone has suggested recently elsewhere, there may be law suits to follow about misrepresentation. The long term success of the new facilities will depend on what they can truly offer in terms of good quality venues. (See Patrick Hoyos commentary yesterday on Broad Street Journal, where he laments what he got for his money in terms of hard seat and untile floor, and asks “Is this the price we must pay for having the privilege of hosting a major international sporting event?” Noting that “…the price we have paid has given all of the economies in this region a decidedly uncertain destiny.”)
Don’t worry, children.
Daddy’s here to pick up all the pieces.
I’ll be home soon to ‘comfort’ all of you.
A short while ago I wrote a commentary suggesting that Barbados stands to benefit most from the “collateral publicity” inherent in hosting the super 8’s and the final.
Setting aside the “finger pointing” incompetence and the cost/benefit debate of the improvements for a moment… Barbados has been on the world stage as far as cricket fans are concerned, and will be on Saturday. Kensington Oval and Barbados is mentioned continouosly in the media, internet and television coverage…
This type of goodwill has priceless value to the tourism industry, specifically as the audience are the very people who generate 90% (approximation Mr. L) of our tourism revenue…
So where did this well intentioned expedition go pear shaped?
As Ian L. suggests there was never a possibility of making any kind of resonable return on investment as it unfolded.
But the horse had already left the barn so to speak, when the collective LOC’s agreed to give away the TV and other rights to the ICC.
That was/is the cream on the pie! And what a coup for the ICC… they persuaded the LOC’s to front all of the risk capital and then to add insult to injury walk away with the “rights” to the tournament…
Seems to me that if, and that’s a big IF, the LOC’s could coordinate they might be seeking collective legal recourse to claw back some of the proported US$600 ++ Million earned by the ICC.
Perhaps the West Indies should completely withdraw from ODI cricket and/or BOYCOTT the ICC until this injustice has been put right?
Our local “super salesman” hired by the ICC to seduce the locals should have some knowledge of this?
Over to you…ICC Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2007 Managing Director, Chris Dehring.
dont know if you guys at BFP realize it, but that yahoo.com email address of yours bounces back an AWFUL lotta email of mine, and everyone else’s!
Don’t worry, you’re not alone: I have a friend with a similar yahoo.com email address, and I get the same stupid problem with HIS emails:
they all (or most of them) bounce back!
In short, yahoo,.com as an email address is unreliable and frustrating.
I questioned my friend about his box-quota at yahoo, and why didnt he keep his goddam box cleared, so ppl could get new mail in??
– he checked, to discover that his mailbox is just 2% “full”, so clearly now this is Yahoo messing up.
Any of you guys with yahoo accounts need to reconsider.!
For gods sake go with gmail, or hotmail or anything other than yahoo.com, okay?
Thanks for your attn. to this matter.
new reader
stocktaking needs to take place of the outcome of CWC by INDEPENDENT PERSONS ( i.e persons who had no investement in thw whole process. if such persons are outside of barbados then let us hire them.
And there I was thinking I was the only one who had problems with Yahoo! My cousin in the States had to switch from Yahoo to Hotmail because she could never receive my e-mail – it bounced right back to me each and every time. Your information was useful.
Dr. Ali Bacher from South Africa has put the issue of the CWC 2007 fiasco in its true perspective .
Read the link below ,
http://www.nationnews.com/story/307568268743802.php
As the successful mastermind of the CWC 2003 event in South Africa, Dr. Ali Bacher has confirmed the following :
** Ticket prices were too high for the CWC 2007 event….( my emphasis, in a geographoical region where per capita incomes are low )
** To many restrictions…thus taking away the Caribbean flavour.
** Inflated egos & projections…..a.k.a Lynch 90,000 , 75,000 & 28 cruise ships bloated figures .
** No thought was given to include the locals….everything was projected for the tourists.
In light of these telling facts of omission….how can OUR politicians blame the ICC , India & Pakistan….and fail to blame themselves First & Foremost…..?
Unbelievable !
It took Dr. Bacher to hit the nail on the head !
Thanks Dr. Bacher , probably now that a foreign voice has said this……maybe they would listen !
Extract from today’s edition of the antiguan sun
Caricom visa hits 40,000 mark
Thursday April 26 2007
With Cricket World Cup 2007 in its final week, the Caribbean Community has issued 40,000 Special Visas to visitors to the region.
Of these, 10,000 visas have been issued in London, United Kingdom, while Australia, Canada, India and the United States have issued between five and six thousand visas each.
Chairperson of the Caricom Sub Committee on Security for the CWC 2007, and Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley said staff at the issuing sites for the visas have worked extremely hard to meet the application demands.
“To obtain the secure Caricom visa applicants have had to undergo several layers of security screening but as a result of this screening process 1,386 persons were denied entry into the region,” she explained.
The Barbados deputy prime minister further highlighted that the Caricom Special Visa has been very effective in tackling crime, in particular the battle against human trafficking.
‘The regional security platform for this tournament is multi layered, and as such nationals from countries that do not need a visa to enter the Caribbean are still caught in the net once they are flagged as posing a security threat to the region.
“We are now into the final stages of the CWC 2007, with the final set to bowl off on Saturday, 28 April in Barbados, the security and intelligence personnel will be on red alert to ensure the safety and security of all.”
I hope adrian l is satisfied with the numbers quoted by minister mottley.
Why cant he engage us in a morely discussion on who will win the world cup.
anon,
Thanks for your prompt on the visa issue provided in the link below.
http://www.antiguasun.com/paper/?as=view&sun=281935077507132005&an=273946086104262007&ac=Local
That being the case then the following questions need be answered by the authorities :
*** If only 5,000 visas were issued to Indians…..how could their early exit from CWC 2007 be blamed for the poor crowds….?
*** Noel Lynch indicated that the Indians coming were booked for Carnival Destiny….so why were 3 Air India airlines being chartered since no visas were required for cruise ship passengers…?
*** What were the visa numbers for Pakistan since their early exit were blamed for the poor crowds as well….?
*** As Chief of Security for CWC 2007 did Mia Mottley offer condolences to the people of Pakistan & Bob Woolmer’s family on his untimely passing…?
Let us start to take a look at some of the financial deals surrounding ICC World CUp and the Barbados LOC in particular. The LOC paid $18,700.00 to a company called Cleanvevent Int’l Pty Ltd. of Melbourne, Australia for cleaning services for the re-opening of Kensington Oval.
What was so special about that Australian company? Why could this contract not have been afforded to one of our cleaning services companies?
Where are all of the local companies that clean Sherbourne, Government Offices, private companies, etc… are they too local?
And we are told that we have a caring Government? Oh no …. we have a corrupt government! This World Cup stinks to the high heavens …. all finaced by tax-payers …. but it gets worse …. read on
The Barbaods LOC is respondsible for all activities related to the events in Barbados and they have to pay for most of them. Of course, out of the tax-payers pockets! This being the case, why have they decided to award a contract in the sum of US $500,000 to Peter Minshall’s company, The Callaloo Company of Chagaramas, Trinidad to perform at the closing ceremony?
The fees to the performers from Trinidad is US $197,000 alone! To manufacture the 10 puppets being used in the show is costing Bajan tax-payers via Callaloo Company US $75,000.
We can find US half-million dollars (one million Bajan dollars) to pay Trinis to perform for 30 minutes and are paying our local talent less than 10% of that.
And would you believe that yesterday the LOC paid US $270,000 to ACT of Miami for providing lighting and stage services for the closing event on Saturday?
Why could this contract not have been awarded to Darcie Boyce of DB Productions or some other local talent?
It seemsFrancine Charles arranging the closing ceremony and giving loads of our money to Minshall and other foreigners. I am told Francine Charles is Trinidadian . I thought she was from Guyana. Minshall is Trinidadian. Hmmmm home drums beating and Bajans getting lick up. Darcy Boyce, Richard Stoute and co could have done closing ceremony. Invite a few artistes from other caribbean countries and call it wally.
Peter Piper are you correct? Is the local organising Committee for CWC really paying out to date by your reckoning over $1,500,000.00 Bds and counting.
People look out for Owen calling an election in a few weeks. He surely cannot go any further.
Barbadians get ready to vote these BLP’S out of Office. Enough is enough. Be careful of the tricks, which the BLP will bring to fool you once again. Let them know enough is enough and as such their time in government is over. Get out of your indiffernce and make a difference.
DLP,
I agree with you. Owen cannot wait for the bills to come in or for the financial statements to be completed and published in relation to CWC. Elections are just around the corner. I hope you guys are ready. …and I hope you stop all the talk about theifing BLP Politicians and give people real facts as well as take action. If Glyne Clarke has done wrong in relation to the house that wsas acquired by Gov’t take action….if Owen has been laundering money….show the people…If Noel Lynch is on the take show us how . In fact you should have a special campaign for Owen, Lynch and Mia to resign over CWC.
DLP BARBADOS:
Then get out there with mass meetings and inform the real crowds. This forum, as you know, is limited and won’t reach many others. Good luck.
The overall number of 40,000 Caricom visas issued is pretty meaningless UNLESS we know the numbers and nationalities of who they were issued to.
ie;
Indian Nationals #
Pakistini National #
etc, etc.
Readers have to remember that many nationals of countries who have an extremely limited following of cricket were also required to obtain visas, ie: Russians, Scandinavians. Swiss etc.
With this information we could better analyse the real effects of not having the Indians and Pakistini’s in the Caribbean.
I am sure Hon. Mia Motley wouldn’t mind tellimg us.
csme stop the insularity CWC2007 was and is a caribbean thing what’s wrong with T&T participation….. or any of ther other countries for that matter.
Peter Piper could you really be serious and is this true?
You have said more than a mouthful in your post are we then to assume that these contracted companies will have some commissions being paid to these ministers and monies will be paid into these ministers bank accounts offshore??
It is amazing that we have the resources available locally to undertake lighting and cleaning but these would have been contracted to overseas suppliers this smells fishy to me I would need to ask who is involved in booking these people and what is there connection to these players?
This is going to hurt!!!!!
Mia recently said they handed out the 40,000th visa…. (Canada, USA and UK and a few others?) I think don’t need Visas.
But it is true. Some persons might have taken out Visas and then never came. A lot of people were turned off about the whole Visas thing and were saying it was going to take months so many opted IMHO to stay home and just watch it on TV.
Re: During the recent West Indies versus England game, I witnessed literally hundreds of fans leave the ground after midday because they could not find shade, even after paying up to US$100 per ticket.
And that’s with about 23,000 of the 28,000 seats being filled.
Many simply will not be prepared to endure the same unrelenting sun for a five day test series.
You know I was quite—- suprised to see this not factored into the original plans. I knew some seats were probably being left exposed so that the powers that be– could sell those seats as “discount” seats. While the ones with *some* cover would be more like premium seats. In this day and age any stadium that is being used as a major venue is supposed to have a mostly closed roof. Esp. if located near the Equator where the sun’s rays are more direct…. If the stadium must be open only the part above the game field is supposed to be… If they could have pulled off the same stadium they have now with a retractable roof that would have been better. The Rogers Centre in Canada comes to mind. ( http://www.rogerscentre.com/ ) it used to be known as the “Sky dome” because during a game they can press a button and open up the roof automatically.
Ohh well now this stadium might end up being a white elephant because it may not even be suitable to have it as an indoor conference facility when sporting events aren’t being held there. Everything is open to the elements.
Anonymous
April 27th, 2007 at 12:13 pm · Edit
The overall number of 40,000 Caricom visas issued is pretty meaningless UNLESS we know the numbers and nationalities of who they were issued to.
ie;
Indian Nationals #
Pakistini National #
etc, etc.
Readers have to remember that many nationals of countries who have an extremely limited following of cricket were also required to obtain visas, ie: Russians, Scandinavians. Swiss etc.
With this information we could better analyse the real effects of not having the Indians and Pakistini’s in the Caribbean.
I am sure Hon. Mia Motley wouldn’t mind tellimg us.
*********************************************
Anonymous,
Take time and read the link below :
http://www.antiguasun.com/paper/?as=view&sun=281935077507132005&an=273946086104262007&ac=Local
The Legacy aspect is that the only real legacy we will have is the legacy of paying mega bills for the next 10 or 15 years to support this ego booster for Owing, what Legacy one of excessive spending and gross mismanagement ?? we have been conned about the legacy aspect of CWC there is as much chance of this stadium paying for itself as sno cone has in hell.
The legacy is one of major debt and gross mismanagement of the peoples money.
If you are waiting on Lynch to make a sensible move after CWC you can wish again he would not know what to do to arrange a drink up in brewery that gives you some idea of his capabilities useless.
” The LOC paid $18,700.00 to a company called Cleanevent Int’l Pty Ltd. of Melbourne, Australia for cleaning services for the re-opening of Kensington Oval. ”
PINCH me! – somebody PLEASE pinch me!
I refuse to believe that people came from Melbourne,Australia, more than half a planet away – to clean Kensington Oval,Barbados.
Tell me it ain’t so.
I have no prob. with regional ppl being used for lighting, shows, etc, at least they are our nearby cuzzins, and all part of the ‘glorious’ CARICOM..
..but AUSTRALIA ???
What part of Caricom are they?? I woulda sooner believe Brasil!
so please… somebody wake me up.
Give me a slap to jolt me out of this Twilight Zone that April,2007 has been!
Now I’m very very sure how I’m voting.
Twilight Zone
You call Miami a caricom zone not really is it? the lighting is a Miami based setup more money leaking out of our accounts to line Owing etals accounts overseas????
Why didn’t we import ice from Antarctica,
rather than have Very Ordinary Local Ice?
Imagine how cool dat woulda been!
Check de ice in my glass,boy!-it come from Penguin Land, yuh sight?
THIS is no ordinary Local Ice from Mike in Salters…chaaaawww!
BLP missed a big one,there.
– maybe next time.
Breaking News.
Barbados’ economic woes are no more.
A large gas field has been discovered about 25 nautical miles SSW of Barbados, along the axis of the Barbados Ridge that runs in the general direction of Tobago.
Initial testing as to capacity and reserves seem to indicate this new hydrocarbon deposit,
might be about as large as Trinidad’s ‘Dolphin Deep’ and ‘Starfish’ fields (to the East of that island) put together!
– the news is good: very good.
Production methodologies should be put in place this Summer,
when surface sea conditions abate, allowing difficult deepwater infrastructure to be emplaced, via the use of ROVs, due to water depth beyond divers’ human capabilities.
Initial production should start in late 2007, or early 2008, and be in full production mode by end-2008.
Barbados’ ruling Barbados Labour Party hopes to capitalise on this great news in the run-up to scheduled elections initially planned to be announced soon after the culmination of Cricket World Cup,2007,
but in view of the economic malaise associated with that event,
the party may now wait until short Bajan memories have forgotten April,2007
and returned to norm, also allowing for thorough completion of road works islandwide, before announcing an election much later in the year.
—————————-
PostScript:
Don’t believe everything you read on the internet.
Both the Antigua Sun and Nation’s article only specify the total number of Caricom visas issued by each office.
They have NOT broken down the numbers to indicate exactly how many visas have been issued to the different nationalities.
Until we have this information, its almost impossible to put a cost of not having India and Pakistan remain in the CWC competition.
I do not know why, Caricom would choose to withhold this information.
Yeah but Barbados put ConocoPhilips in charge. Big no-no. They are one of the most protested multinationals… Every country they go into ends in violence with the “peasants” claiming they’re not being given their real worth in terms of their own oil wealth. Since Barbados doesn’t have room for oil refineries and must continue to send to Trinidad and Tobago anyways— Barbados should perhaps become a part shareholder in AtlanticLNG [ http://www.atlanticlng.com/ ] and just cut out the middleman. Trinidad has been training some engineers I think I read to build oil rigs.
ChillingOUT
April 27th, 2007 at 2:43 pm · Edit
Why didn’t we import ice from Antarctica,
rather than have Very Ordinary Local Ice?
Imagine how cool dat woulda been!
Check de ice in my glass,boy!-it come from Penguin Land, yuh sight?
THIS is no ordinary Local Ice from Mike in Salters…chaaaawww!
BLP missed a big one,there.
– maybe next time.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
For heavens sakes, don’t go putting ideas into these guys heads. Look what can be done in Dubai, a desert city, a whole ski slope can be built.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/architecture/indoorski.asp
Anyhow people, the big day has finally arrived.
For Barbados, as a nation, let us all wish for a happy, incident free, and successful finale
to this extraganza.
The accounting may , or may not come along later, but we as Bajans must give of our best this holiday weekend to show the world how to enjoy life..Bajan style.
There may in fact be 13 cruise ships finally around the port, and hopefully 700 yachts in Carlisle Bay.
This is, I am sure, what has always been planned as the outcome of a knockout tournament.
No-one in the world ( except our Minister of Tourism, who lost his shirt and possibly his portfolio) could predict the final game, such is one-day cricket.
The damage done to our tourism product has been broadcast around the world.
It will take years to rectify.
We can start making amends tomorrow by making it a final, and finale to remember.
Not the event.
Not the control.
But pure caribbean enthusiasm for the beautiful game.
Did you see the traffic/activity at 7:30 p.m. Friday night in the suburban Bridgetown area generally?
Wife remarked that THIS was the sort of economic activity that was forecast for the whole three weeks,
but which of course never quite materialized.
It’s said that the lil local bars and eating joints are the ones that are seeing the upswing in business, not in bigup restaurants like Champers an dem.
$1.5 Million paid out to Trinis and watch tomorrow – they are using Bajan school children performing for free out of their own nationalistic feeling. We have been raped once again.
That is incredible. They see we are in a hole and still pump $1.5M into a 30 minute ceremony. Think about it – that is $50,000 a minute of OUR MONEY to make the government feel good and try to spin that this CWC was worthwhile.
”It’s said that the lil local bars and eating joints are the ones that are seeing the upswing in business, not in bigup restaurants like Champers an dem.”
You think the visitors chupid? They have limited funds to spend too y’know.
Good for the lil guys, and gals 😉
Upsurge
April 28th, 2007 at 12:44 am · Edit
Did you see the traffic/activity at 7:30 p.m. Friday night in the suburban Bridgetown area generally?
Wife remarked that THIS was the sort of economic activity that was forecast for the whole three weeks,
but which of course never quite materialized.
It’s said that the lil local bars and eating joints are the ones that are seeing the upswing in business, not in bigup restaurants like Champers an dem.
***********************************************
Upsurge,
What we experienced today ( 27th April 2007 ) had not one damn to do with CWC 2007 !
The fact is :
** 28th April 2007 is Heroes Day ( bank Holiday ) which falls on a Saturday !
** Because Heroes Day is a bank Holiday people rushed to do their pre – holiday shopping ( i.e on the Friday ) !
** The long promised back-pay for public servants was paid on 27th April 2007 !
** School resumes officially on Monday 30th April 2007 !
** Friday 27th April 2007 was then the only realistic day to get into town to do your business !
Why did the gov’t chose 27th April rather than 30th April to pay the civil servants back – pay ?
YOU ARE CORRECT…..
To make the hype & rush appear CWC 2007 related !
Do you buy that…… Bajans…..?
This whole World Cup is a 6 week version of what is going on in the Caribbean in general. The politicians are telling us one thing, while the majority of people seem to be living in a different reality. Politicians try to convince us that their economics and projections, (for which they are highly paid), are correct and worthwhile. When they professed that everyone stood to gain, the reality was that street vendors at Oistin and Baxters road were shunted into a corner for the duration of the entire event.
If this is meant to be the 3rd biggest sporting event in the World, then hopefully this will teach us to stuups at the next round of hype that will claim that it is worth taking up generations of agricultural potential for use as golf courses because of some “world tournament”. Hopefully we won’t be conned into shutting down our major roads and borrowing millions under the impression that we can hold some major formula one race some time in the future.
There is also the question of whether this visa issue only applies to cricket fans, or did all visitors to the region coming by air have to get a Caricom visa? If a cricket fan did not want to go to the extra expense, could they not simply deny that they are coming for cricket?. 40,000 visas does not seem like much of a crowd at all. They get more people at the English only, FA Cup finals, which is over in 2 hours! A tournament is not only about the finals. If it was then no one need go to any of the preliminary matches.
Taking all this sporting hype with the pinch of salt it deserves, is causing regional hypertension.
Peace
Whaloss…… somebody kill a priest ??!!!! We goin have to call dis de “Murphey’s Law CWC” Whatever coulda gone wrong, went wrong and look now after weeks of blazing sun, it goin rain pun de finals!!!!
“$1.5 Million paid out to Trinis and watch tomorrow – they are using Bajan school children performing for free out of their own nationalistic feeling. We have been raped once again.”
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What we are witnessing is the last throes of a feeding frenzy …. they all know that time is short for them.
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