The?Banks Hockey Festival is fast becoming a fading star in our sports tourism galaxy.
It is easy to arrive at this conclusion otherwise more visible, concerted efforts would be in place to help in the restoration of the Hockey AstroTurf at Wildey.
The restoration of the turf is paramount because returning to grass is not only retrograde but it has a direct impact on the number of overseas teams who would be interested in participating in the festival.
I don’t think it is a coincidence that there’s only one international team competing in this year’s edition of what used to be one of the flagships of sports tourism along with events like the Fred Rumsey Pro-Am Cricket Festival and the Run Barbados Series.
Incidentally, there’s not much emphasis on that form of cricket anymore with tour operators more interested in schools and youth tournaments, while Run Barbados is a shadow of what was intended to the extent that because of depleted numbers, the iconic marathon was dropped from the series last year.
I can’t say if in contemporary parlance a paradigm shift has resulted in less attention being paid to the aforementioned sports but it shouldn’t be so easy to forget some of the pillars that kept sports tourism afloat for sustained periods.
The importance of the Banks Hockey Festival could or should never be depreciated. It was created at a time when there was a very vibrant domestic hockey environment.
Club competition was extremely competitive and so the festival became a natural progression to having an environment where local players would play more hockey against players from in and outside the region and with tourism being one of the main beneficiaries.
We are talking about several regional teams, particularly from Trinidad and Guyana, and the European component adding to an overseas contingent of an average of 10 teams. There was good spend as the teams enjoyed life on and off the field.
Such was the enthusiasm among locals is that several of them strategically took vacation from work to be part of the festival.
I suspect that is still the trend but I think they will miss the international competition because it was a way of guaging their standard of play.
In any event, it seems we are only now talking about the good old days because if we are frank the festival can be seen as an extension of the domestic season with some added flavours, based on the vast decline in numbers of foreign sides.
It could be blamed on the world economic crisis which may have had a direct link to the falloff in traffic but also on the fact that the tournament has had to be played on grass for the past two years.
I am sure there would have been reservations among potential participants when this fact was known.
The long and short is that we don’t have an international facility for hockey anymore as the surface at the Cave Hill Campus caters to seven-a-side contests.
I have heard of two attempts to get a used AstroTurf surface from a source in Germany but nothing has materialized.
It would seem that costs on one hand and uncertainty over whether to have a water-based or sand-based surface on the other, have frustrated plans by the Barbados Hockey Federation to get work done on restoring the Wildey turf.
For the past two years it has been used as a venue for entertainment and other activities. This is shocking and shameful while hockey is put further on the back burner at a venue constructed for the sport.
This is not to say the hockey federation shouldn’t share the responsibility for returning the turf to its original use but they must get help in doing so.
I get the impression they have been getting the runaround from some of the sources they have approached for assistance. In the meantime, procrastination is contributing to the ruining of a festival that has served Barbados well in the past.
The glory days are quickly fading even as national policymakers talk about the importance of sports tourism to the economy and the like.
The Banks Hockey Festival, now staging its 28th edition, must be in the brew for special attention strictly on merit.
It has to begin with having a facility that all comers and all stakeholders are comfortable with.
Seriously, we need to revitalize a festival that has now become more froth than beer.
 • Andi Thornhill is an experienced, award-winning freelance sports journalist.
