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The National Sports Centre facilities will be free to use for all national squads from now on.

Sports Minister Glenn Blakeney said it did not make sense to charge squads that were representing the country to use their national centre.

Currently national squads are given two weeks free use of the stadium before an international fixture. Outside of that grace period they have to pay.

Many associations, including the BTFA and the BFA, have complained in the past that the cost is too high and they have had to find other places around the island to train.

But Mr Blakeney said he wanted national squads to train at the national stadium and had instructed the trustees of the centre to find a way to make his new proposal work.

The cost, he said, could be covered by charging casual users of the stadium a fee to enter or by the Government taking a higher per centage of gate receipts from international events.

More from gate receipts

"If, for example, we are giving cricket x million dollars and we are giving football x million dollars and we are the propriet0rs of the National Sports Centre, we're basically giving them their rent anyway. It doesn't make any sense.

"I don't want it to be prohibitive for national sports bodies to use the national stadium.

"I have told my chairman to make this the policy going forward.

"Training at the national centre is an extra motivation for athletes to come out and train. If you make it to the national squad you should have access to the best coaches and the best facilities."

The waiving of charges would not apply to domestic fixtures played at the centre but to national squads only.

For example the Bermuda Hockey Federation would still have to pay to play their league games on regular weekends but the national squad, which has been training for this week's Pan Am Cup for the past four months, would not be charged.

A charging system could also be introduced to discourage casual users from pushing prams around the track or using it like a park.

"There are plenty of places where they can do that.

"If your national track team is training and you've got a mother with a baby carriage that's a potential distraction."

He said the BTFA and other organisations would also be empowered to close the centre off to other users during their training sessions.[[In-content Ad]]

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