Mayor hints at increased user fees for MoBay Sports Complex

WESTERN BUREAU:

Organisers of sports, cultural and other entertainment events could be asked to pay more in rental fees to use the Montego Bay Sports Complex as the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC) moves to achieve sustainability from the fees it charges.

Rental fees for use of the facility have remained at the rates established over the last seven years, even in the face of mounting maintenance costs, including inflation. Those fees varied depending on the nature of the events and whether the organisers were using the full seating capacity of the stadium.

“The same price that you paid for the stadium seven years ago, it’s the same price that you are paying now, and the cost to run it seven years ago has increased significantly to date,” revealed Richard Vernon, chairman of the StJMC and mayor of Montego Bay. “So we have to look at those things because in everything, there must be sustainability, and for sustainability to be achieved at the Montego Bay Sports Complex, we have to look at cost.”

Bleeding the public purse

According to a Sunday Gleaner report last August, the Montego Bay Sports Complex is now bleeding the public purse, costing the StJMC $50 million annually while bringing in very little revenue.

Up to July last year, the StJMC had spent $7.4 million to maintain the facility while it had only collected $2.4 million from nine entertainment events hosted in the parking lots.

“One of the major things that has hindered us from maintaining the space is that we have not adjusted the cost associated with utilising the facility to the variable cost associated with inflation,” Vernon told journalists last Friday.

“It costs us a lot to maintain, salaries have increased, gas has gone up, we have to cut the [football] field, so these input costs have increased, but we have not increased the charge,” Vernon said of the Montego Bay Sports Complex in Catherine Hall which was formally opened in June 2010.

While the StJMC is actively contemplating increasing the fees it charges to use the facility, including the possibility of a public-private partnership in the form of a lease agreement, Vernon sought to assure stakeholders that no one will be disenfranchised in the process.

“… The people at no point in time, in any of our decisions, whether it be to adjust cost or to adjust prices or how we engage the relevant entities to upgrade it will be disenfranchised or feel that they are operating on the fringes,” Mayor Vernon insisted.

The hosting of Jamaica Premier League football returned to the complex last year, following a $7-million investment by the StJMC to rehabilitate the football pitch. However, the facility’s all-weather synthetic track, which is the only one in the western end of the island, has deteriorated over the years and was deemed unfit six years ago amid fears that athletes could suffer serious injuries running on the surface.

According to Vernon, the StJMC is committed to developing sporting disciplines among the people of the parish in a drive to facilitate socialisation. As such he promised that track and field events at all levels would return to the facility soon.

“Rest assured that we are working tirelessly to restore the track. So when next we look at the Western Championships, whether it be for public or private schools, there will be a space for the activity to be hosted,” Vernon promised.