East Bank Football stadium moves into stage 2
– Minister Ramson pleased at current pace
– D’Urban Park to become Guyana’s international football venue
On Saturday, Minister of Culture, Youth & Sport, Hon. Charles Ramson Jr. visited the developing football stadium, in Providence, East Bank Demerara where he expressed satisfaction with the progress made by the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) in developing the facility.
The Minister explained that the GFF was able to obtain a lease from the Neighborhood Democratic Council in 2015, and began to renovate and build new quarters.
“I’m pretty impressed overall with the pace of the work and also the quality of the work being done here by the GFF and the leadership of Wayne Forde,” the Minister said.
Minister Ramson stated that sport is an important aspect of youth development and discipline, and as such the project is crucial.
As the building and renovations continue, President of GFF, Wayne Forde announced that the project is now moving into phase two, which is the installation of lights.
The facility is equipped dormitories for players, an entertainment section, supervisor’s quarters, private washrooms, a bar, gymnasium, storage facility and kitchen, among other designated spaces.
It will be fully powered by solar energy upon completion.
Moreover, GFF is expanding the project to Ann’s Grove on the East Coast of Demerara and in New Amsterdam, Berbice.
“We have identified the Ann’s Grove Community Ground and we’ve been in discussion with the community there about an MOU [Memorandum of Understanding] that will give the Federation and its members some rights to the venue and that is progressing very well,” the GFF President said.
He continued “, in 2018 we were able to sign a twentyyear lease with the Council in Berbice (New Amsterdam) for 4.3 acres of land”.
Both Ann’s Grove and New Amsterdam projects will receive a $10Million allocation each. He further outlined that the Federation is also focused on the strategic development of women’s football.
In addition, GFF is also working out big plans for D’UrbanPark.
“D’Urban Park, where it’s a 7.6 acres land, we signed a lease about a year ago or so. It is going to be developed as the international football venue for Guyana. We’re getting support from our counterparts in Denmark for the engineering services and in a few weeks, you will see work starting on the clearing of the ground,” Forde stated. As part of the Memorandum of Understanding, GFF will be regularly engaging with the Government and sharing project designs. A key concept of the project for GFF is community involvement, as they aim to develop each community that the programmes are implemented.