San Fernando mayor Regrello wants sports first at redeveloped Skinner Park

SAN FERNANDO mayor Junia Regrello wants the first major event hosted at the newly redeveloped Skinner Park facility, to be one of a sporting nature.

The multi-purpose venue is scheduled to be handed over to the city’s corporation by the Urban Development Corporation of TT (Udecott) on January 15, after closing its doors to facilitate a full-scale renovation, in May 2019.

Regrello said he was “given an assurance” by Udecott and its project manager, in November last year, that Skinner Park would be ready in mid-January.

While he anticipates the resumption of activity at the historic south venue, Regrello said there may be a slight delay in the handing over, considering the amount of rainfall in the latter part of 2022.

“We must be mindful of the challenging rainy season we had which may have stymied the date somewhat as there was a lot of open-air work.”

“However we are hopeful that it would be sufficiently ready to host some events. We are told the venue may be completely or sufficiently finished to host some events. There are some little areas they are working on. We are hopeful that we will be ready.”

While the cultural fraternity eagerly awaits the return of their traditional stomping ground, particularly for Carnival, Regrello hopes sport will be considered a frontrunner for Skinner Park’s first major event.

“Being a balanced San Fernandian, I would say I think sports should be a priority for the park as opposed to cultural events. In fact, the first major event in the park should be a sporting event as opposed to a cultural event.

“There are so many stakeholders involved like the Ministry of Sport and Community Development and Udecott. Let’s hope the powers that be will look at it and make the right and best decision.”

Regrello said, as a child, he remembers watching TT’s first Olympic gold medallist (100m) Hasely Crawford compete there as a teenager.

He believes sport remains a core element of Skinner Park since, according to him, at some point during the careers of many of TT’s former and current sportsmen and women, Skinner Park served as a stage to showcase their junior and/or senior talent.

“I saw Hasely Crawford running at Skinner Park when he was about 13-15 years old. I was still in primary school. Look where Hasely reached and what he was able to achieve. That should be our benchmark, then we could produce more Hasely Crawfords.

“If Hasely was able to achieve what he did, by running on a simple normal ground, now that we have improved facilities and one that encourages a lot of spectators/audience, it will encourage people to perform and bring out their best.”

He added that restoration works were “long overdue” and thinks the south city will be “proud.”

Upon completion, the facility will be able to host sporting events for football, cycling, track and field, basketball, netball, lawn tennis and volleyball.

Regrello said they also plan to have indoor activities since there will be ample space for conferences, meetings and other indoor events.

Additionally, the playing field was reoriented north-south to prevent the impact of sunlight on the users of the field. Udecott said this adjustment was is in keeping with standard practice for football fields.

It was also confirmed that there was no adjustment to the size of the field during the reorientation process and it continues to satisfy the minimum requirement of FIFA which is 90 metres by 45 metres.

The newly redeveloped park, which includes concession stands and retail spaces, will accommodate 6,000 people – 3,000 in the main stand and 1,500 per bleacher.

The park will cater for both cultural and sporting events for the people of San Fernando and the wider national community.