Government plans for permanent home for American football in the works

Fri, Sep 25th 2015, 05:22 PM

With more and more Bahamians getting into American football, the government is working on providing a permanent venue in order facilitate the growth of the sport here in The Bahamas.

This week, Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Dr. Daniel Johnson, along with chairman of the Public Parks and Beach Authority (PPBA) Senator Greg Burrows and representatives from the National Sports Authority (NSA) and the Bahamas Flag Football League (BFFL), revealed their ideas for the development of a football field complex. The complex will consist of four fields with the possibility of adding two more if the demand for the use of the facility ever reaches that point.

"Although it's a football field, it can be used for other field sports that are growing such as soccer and lacrosse and a few others. What is unique about it is that once everything is done, we will have six fields, which allows the heads of the various federations the opportunity to host international events," said Burrows.

"It will include a concession stand in the middle, along with bathrooms and a few other accommodations."

Minister Johnson said the fields will help raise the level of American football here in the country. He said that he expects the area to take shape within the next three months.

"We need the approval of the federations to do this kind of work; we're trying to partner with people in the community, anyone out there that may want their names on the field or up in lights, or even want to get a youth program going. We're asking that you contact the NSA or my ministry," said Johnson.

"We are in the business of sports and to do this at the level we want to do it, we need to attain critical mass. We need state-of-the-art premises, we need enough people using our premises and we need the federation to be involved with the revenue. We need them involved with international events because we know we have the benefit of hundreds of people coming to play, and they bring revenue along with them, but we want the federations to participate in a formula with the sports authority that they make revenue off of their tournaments, events and regular season play as well."

BFFL President Jayson Clarke said that he's pleased the government is living up to its promise of providing a permanent home for one of the fastest growing sports in the country, and that he's excited to see how it develops over the next several months.

"I know a couple of months ago when Senator Burrows had asked us to move from Winton this is one of the promises that were made and I'm happy about the progress that has been happening thus far," he said. "We have been in some talks with folks in Florida who have been interested in doing a tournament here with 30 or 40 teams, but the requirement is to be able to do it in two days time so there's a need for a minimum of four fields. It will provide greater growth development and visibility of the sport."

The league relocated last season from the Winton Rugby Pitch to the original Thomas A. Robinson Track and Field Stadium.

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