Statement delivered today by the Minister of Youth, Culture and Sport, Sen. Owen K. Darrell, JP.
"Good afternoon and thank you for joining me.
Today, I am pleased to have with me Members of the National Sports Centre Board of Trustees
As we stand here today, undoubtedly, the National Sport Centre facility has become a focal point for sports development and sports excellence over the years.
The National Sports Centre is the home to Bermuda’s national football, field hockey, athletics, cricket, rugby and swim teams and is recognized by FIFA, IAAF, ICC, FINA, and FIH international sporting bodies as an official competition venue.
The NSC includes a 50m Swimming Pool with 8 lanes – including a dive tower and springboards, Field Hockey Turf, the National Fields Complex that consist of 400m 8-lane track on the South Field with a covered 2,000 seat grandstand and an additional 2,300 seat open-air grandstand.
This facility is popular with the community who use this facility to exercise and stay active. It’s also a venue for local community events, youth activities and the site of national celebrations.
The two-storey multi-purpose Pavilion includes an upper lounge area, outside terrace and commercial kitchen and the hall that seats approximately 80 persons.
There is also a state-of-art, Athletic Training Zone and the newest venue – the Event Tent, a 9,000 square feet clear span tent for hosting banquets, concerts, festivals, and indoor sporting events.
And as summer approaches, we expect that the National Sports Centre will be a buzzing with sporting activities.
As such, we thought it was important to provide you with a general update and overview of some of the new additions, upgrades and changes that have taken place with the facility over the past months.
The efficient running of the facility is our primary concern. The National Sports Centre has sought ways to reduce the carbon footprint of the facility and its associated energy costs.
Within the last few months, the mounting of the solar panels on the erected carport was partially completed, the construction of the inverter room has been completed, and the LED lights of at the Hockey Field, Aquatics Centre, and the North Field have been installed.
Eniscopes and related hardware for energy management and monitoring have been installed and are online in order to increase energy efficiencies. This represents another step in transforming and enhancing the NSC and its facilities.
One of the widely noted developments with the facility was the installation of a new heat pump for the NSC’s pool.
The installation of the Heat Pump was a significant step the NSC efforts to reduce its energy costs.
We appreciate the employment opportunities derived from this aspect of the NSC project. We would also like to acknowledge the efforts of everyone involved with bringing the new heat pump online.
While we recognize what we have achieved with the NSC, we also acknowledge the ongoing challenges we face and the ongoing efforts to address the NSC Solar Energy Project issues.
We have encountered project delays because of material and supply deliveries challenges, and these have definitely impacted the project.
While I highlight these supply chain issues and the challenges this presents, I would also like to stress that we are addressing these issues as a focused priority.
The Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sport has now secured further technical assistance to assist in assessing how we can expedite some of the outstanding construction works. In that regard I want to thank Ministry of Public Works in this regard.
I want to assure the public that any delays to the ongoing construction will in no way hinder members of our community and our athletes from using the facilities.
In fact, as we have seen, the National Sports Centre hosted the very successful USTAF Bermuda Grand Prix. And, Just a few days ago the Bermuda women’s national hockey team hosted the touring team from University of California Berkeley.
We are also gearing up for a busy summer concert season.
I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the Board and Staff of the NSC for their continued management and support of the facilities. We look forward to continued enjoyment of this National facility in the in the weeks and months to come.
Thank you."