Valuing the few dollars from sports

St Vincent and the Grenadines is by no means a go to sports destination, nor do we have an embedded Sports Tourism policy or sports culture.

Similarly, we do we not have a major sporting Tournament or Festival that attracts a large inflow of people.

Critically too, we are without a golf course on the mainland that attracts the well- to- do, and we do have a state -of- the-art indoor facility where Basketball teams come for pre- season training.

Therefore, the next bests, are to depend economically (albeit incidentally) on the bits and pieces, as well as the few pennies that are accrued from the hosting of regional tournaments, workshops, courses, seminars etc.

Making some spot checks though, St Vincent and the Grenadines was the venue for the 2024 West Indies Rising Stars Under-19 Cricket Tournament in which six teams were accommodated here for about a month.

There were also three back -to- back Tennis Championships held at the National Tennis Centre at Villa. Therefore, from about July 25 to, August 19, 2024,St Vincent and the Grenadines was host to a number of Under-14 Tennis players from the Caribbean, and about 40 Under-18 players, coming from different parts of the world.

These players, along with coaches and parents occupied for that period, rooms in hotels along the Villa stretch, thus ensuring occupancy in the Tourist off-season.

The Windward Islands Volcanoes Franchise squad will be living and training here for an extended period, hence, an injection of finances will accrue to home-owners with accommodation for rent the players and enterprises providing food and food and other items to the visitors, thus stimulating business, although in a small way; but it still counts.

Then, there are the trickles of courses and workshops that are staged here, bringing in facilitators and at times, participants.

In the case of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Football Federation (SVGFF), that organization injects thousands of dollars into the Vincentian economy, as the annual subvention received from Football’s world government body- FIFA, fuel economic activity as the funds go to pay coaches, among other local expenditure.

Not forgetting the monies that the St Vincent and the Grenadines Olympic obtain to fund its affiliates’ programme.

Whilst some is spent on travelling, a portion is spent locally; obviously having some sort of trickle -down effect in the process.

This column is unable to provide an exact dollar amount that can be had from the above -listed events as often times, our statistics do not reflect it, but what is certain, the St Vincent and the Grenadines economy is better off, when they are held here.

Yes, the financial impact may not be astronomical, but for us, anything that causes positive economic growth is worthy, as we need that lift, no matter how small it is.

As the old saying goes, “one- one does full basket”, giving credence also to the idiom, “a little goes a long way”.

The ground work has been laid for us, as St Vincent and the Grenadines can capitalize on the droplets and with some input, we can capitalize on the ready done opportunities that are before us.

We are aware that the West Indies Under-19 Cricket tournament, has been designated to us which provides that certainty during the month of July.

Likewise, St Vincent and the Grenadines has returned on the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) Under-18 Tournament as a fixtured event, providing that annual revenue for hoteliers, taxi operators and others involved in the hospitality sector.

But, it is painstaking to say the least, that those in the position of framing and executing national policies either are incompetent or cannot be bothered by the little imprints that sports is having on the lives and livelihoods of Vincentians.

The realities are that St Vincent and the Grenadines is not competing with others in the region, not because we do not have the ability nor the natural elements to do so, but we lack the political will.