WESTERN BUREAU:
MONTEGO BAY Businessman and chairman of Barnett Estates Limited Mark Kerr-Jarrett has come to the aid of Seba United Football Club by giving the former National Premier League champions 75 acres of land to construct a sports complex.
Work has already started on the parcel of land, which is sited at the entrance of the Irwin community. It is located less than 20 minutes from downtown Montego Bay and is in close proximity to the Fairfield and Granville communities, which are both on the outskirts of the city.
The facility, which should be completed in 2005, is expected to include three playing field, a basketball and netball court and a skill training centre for youths between the ages 16 and 22. This new complex will make Seba United the only club outside of the Kingston and St Andrew to have its own facilities.
Chairman of Seba United Bruce Gaynor told The Gleaner last week that the offer of the lands to build the complex was "a dream come through" for the club. He added that the club's managing director Orville Powell and himself are presently fine-tuning plans to have an official ground breaking ceremony within the next two weeks.
In explaining the design of the new facility, which is expected to cost approximately $300 million, Mr. Gaynor said that the plan includes building three football fields, one of which will be a practice field. The main facility, which will be used for major games, is expected to be a10-12,000 seat mini stadium. The facility will also include a netball and basketball court for the neighbouring communities.
INTERNATIONAL GAMES
According to Mr. Gaynor, the first phase of the facility, which he hopes will be able to host international games, will be the building of a $4 million training field, which he expects will be completed by March 2004. It is anticipated that the surface will be better than the present surface at Jarrett Park.
Seba, which is just one place from the bottom in the latest J Wray & Nephew National Premier League (NPL) standings, thinks that the progress of the team was hampered in the early stages of the competition by the fact that they did not have a proper place to train.
When Seba's plight in regards to them not having a training ground became public mid-way the competition's first round, Mr. Keith and Mrs. Valerie Thorpe, the owners of the Nature Village Farms field, which is located near to the Lethe community, gave the team permission to use that facility for training.
When The Gleaner visited the site of the new stadium last week, a number of heavy equipment were seen clearing the land and trucks were seen bringing in loads of dirt to level out those sections of the land that were deemed to be below the required elevation. Once that is completed, Gaynor said that compression, which is aimed at levelling the surface will start.
While Gaynor is now thinking locally in terms of the building of hostels to house Seba United and visiting teams, he thinks that ultimately the facilities could be rented to overseas teams as a training base.
Insofar as the Trade Training Centre, which is the brainchild of Mr. Powell is concerned, Gaynor said the youths will be taught welding, plumbing and carpentry. According to him, the youths would be trained to work and manage the facility. P.R.
