Guernsey Press

How can States help sport DIY?

EXCELLENT news for Guernsey football, which is finally going to have its own headquarters for the first time after 125 years.

Published

But it’s been an eight-year project to finally get to spades in the ground, and even with funding from the football authorities in England, has been reliant on benefactors to take the project over the line.

There are lessons here for sport more widely as it seeks to capitalise on the success of the Island Games.

Number one – if you want something badly enough, you’ll need to find a way to achieve it yourselves.

It’s understood that there was a lot of talk with the States about assisting with Victoria Avenue funding. At the end of it all, it sold the site to allow the project to go ahead.

If sports like basketball or netball want to move forward, they’ll probably need to sort it out themselves.

Yes, there were plans for a meaningful sports hall facility contained in the original spec for ESC’s Les Ozouets campus, but under funding pressures, if it hasn’t been squeezed out just yet, it may well be if it ever gets agreed.

These are cash-strapped times. The public purse won’t fund stadiums for sport like it did for the Island Games 20 years ago.

So can the States help by explaining what it can do to help facilitate sport and private enterprise to develop the facilities the community needs?