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MSC says facility second to National Stadium
– takes umbrage over negative reports
MSC President, Avery Trim (sixth left) and Secretary, Rawle Blair (fifth left) among other Executives addressing members of the media at the MSC in Linden.
By Edison Jefford
The management of the Mackenzie Sports Club (MSC) took offence to reports that seem to suggest that the club was not willing to corporate with stakeholders to modernise its facility ahead of the Kashif and Shanghai tournament.
As such, the club held a press conference on Thursday to: “address some very negative and inaccurate remarks that were made in various sections of the media regarding the operations of the MSC and its rehabilitation.”
MSC Secretary, Rawle Blair specifically took umbrage to paragraph five of an article that appeared in this newspaper on November 23 in which the latter part stated that the MSC management rejected modernisation moves.
“This pronouncement is very inaccurate and misleading. MSC stands ready to work with any partner. The negative reports that we have been seeing in the press are very much far from the truth,” Blair told the media in Linden.
In attempting to outline the real scenario, as it relates to the development of the facility, he said that MSC and the Kashif and Shanghai Organisation met in February last year and both parties agreed on a way forward.
A Memorandum of Understanding, which this newspaper has seen, was signed between the two entities and a plan projecting the development of the venue was drawn and submitted to the Mayor and Town Council (M&TC).
“At first we had some teething problems with the plan but I visited Town Council with the architect and we addressed those problems that were pointed out to us,” the MSC Secretary informed.
According to Blair, no action was taken up to two months after submitting the plan and they were forced to meet with Regional Chairman, Mortimer Mingo after which the document was forwarded to Georgetown.
“To date we have not gotten a response as to the approval or disapproval of the plan.
The Chairman [Mingo] just gave us a verbal commission to do works on the existing structure,” Blair asserted.
However, he said he got a call sometime after from someone claiming to be an officer of the Central Housing and Planning Authority to inform him that the plan would not be approved because the stands were too close to the fence.
The idea behind the disclosure was to discredit the claim that they are responsible for the prevention of the developmental plan for the facility. Blair said that they could not have turned down a plan that they initiated.
“MSC was so committed to the project that the ground was closed for five months in anticipation of the rehabilitation work. We lost tremendous revenue during that time,” he said, adding that they are ready to work with any partner.
Shifting of Kashif and Shanghai Final
Asked if the movement of the Kashif and Shanghai final from the MSC to the National Stadium has affected the relationship between the two entities, MSC Second Vice– President, Adrian Barret said that they remain brothers.
“Things grow and we are in support of Kashif and Shanghai; they are our brothers and the Stadium is the most centralised venue for the final that has overgrown our seating accommodation,” Barret emphatically said.
“But to say that the facility is rundown is grossly inaccurate. We hope that in some time, we would be able to have it [the final] back. We know that our facility is only second to stadium,” the second vice–president boasted.
Blair said that they have got a facility ready but he will leave the judgement on whether that is good enough up to the public. He admitted that for the last three years there were complaints about accommodation.
Present at the forum was Kashif and Shanghai Organisation Secretary, Colin Aaron, who was given the opportunity to respond to the movement of the final. Aaron basically outlined three eminent reasons.
He identified accommodation, the necessity of a proper VIP Lounge and the surface, stating that the latter reason is workable since his organisation would have been able to get that up to scratch in a month.
However, Aaron said that the organisation noticed that the attendance at the MSC for the past three years for the final was going down owing to the poor accommodation in the regular stands and the VIP Lounge.
“The Kashif and Shanghai Organisation is committed to the MSC. We will continue a good, working relationship throughout,” Aaron stated.
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