Massive investments looming for sports and entertainment – SKNLP manifesto

THERE WILL BE MASSIVE FINANCIAL INJECTIONS IN SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT when the St. Kitts Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) retake office following Friday’s national elections.

According to the SKNLP’s colourful 27-page manifesto launched on social media last week, the new government will build a National Performing Arts Centre and Academy in addition to a national indoor sporting facility.  The government will also ensure all outdoor sporting facilities in every community are equipped with the appropriate lighting, bathroom and locker

Under the five-year plan, the SKNLP also foresees the provision of medical insurance packages for all national sports representatives.

St. Kitts and Nevis is known throughout the Caribbean for its exploits in the area of athletics, netball, volleyball, football and cricket.

Kim Collins was a world-class athlete and participated in four consecutive Summer Olympics between 1996 to 2008. Collins also matched his sprinting prowess with other global sprinting stars in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Collins was the twin-islands first athlete to ever reach an Olympic Games event final.

Dashing and hard-hitting former West Indies opener, Stuart Williams, was a native Kittitian and Nevisian.

Athletes from the island with a population of some 53,000 nationals and residents are also good enough to qualify for the Commonwealth Games held every four years.

In 2007, St Kitts and Nevis was one of eight countries that was a venue for Cricket World Cup hosted in the Caribbean.

But sporting activities have nosedived and several prominent sports personalities have been griping about the treatment meted out to them by the incumbent Timothy Harris regime. According to some complaints, athletes have been sacrificing but the Harris administration has been scrimpy towards them.

Some were forced to forgo a very promising sporting careers in a bid to be able to support their families financially.

For the entertainment sector, it is foreseen that “the creative economy (the “Orange Economy”) will be unlocked so that creativity, the arts and culture can be pursued as careers and productive endeavours by our people,” according to the blueprint.

The SKNLP document said that it will usher in an ambitious, youth driven transformation within the country in order to unleash transformative ideas and policies that will enrich the country’s young people. It noted that the new government will, “include young people in decision making at the national level to ensure that we build a better country that caters to the needs of our future leaders and entrepreneurs”

Qualified youths, under 35, will also occupy positions on national committees and statutory boards in the new government’s quest to help advance sports and entertainment in the Leeward Islands Caribbean nation.