The Boxing Association of Barbados is struggling to survive on “cake sales and car washes” and is urging Minister of Sports Stephen Lashley to make the facilities it rents more affordable since it doesn’t have a home of its own.
This appeal came from president Anthony Jones and secretary Kathy Harper-Hall at a recent Press conference to announce the association’s plans for the year.
Jones said it would be unfair to say that Government wasn’t doing anything because the association had a stake in the National Sports Council (NSC) and the Boxing Board of Control and received donations from those bodies. However, the Boxing Association wanted Government to make the facilities it used, such as the Queen’s Park Steel Shed, cheaper to rent since the venues were “under the auspices” of the Minister of Sports.
“The amount of money that we have to pay for the Steel Shed is far too much,” Jones said.
Harper-Hall said they wanted to hold a dance there and it cost $3 200 to use the venue. They also had to pay insurance, pay to use the ticket booth and the bar.
“We had to cancel the dance. There is no way we can charge more than $10 for a dance nowadays. So you would have to have 350 people in there to pay for the Steel Shed; but if you have 350 people in a dance, there is nowhere to dance,” she said with a wry laugh.
Similarly, it costs in excess of $2 000 to use the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre for a fund-raising bingo event.
The rental fee for the venue is $1 700 and other expenses include rental of the bingo equipment, insurance and paying the concessionaires to open the bar, which the association doesn’t profit from.
“We tried it a couple times and the money went back to them. What is the point of trying to do all of that to raise $1 000?” she asked. (SAT)
