Jean Pierre Com­plex will get much-need­ed re­pairs lat­er this year. The works will cost an es­ti­mat­ed $36,105,966.64.

This ac­cord­ing to a re­lease from the Sports Com­pa­ny of T&T (SporTT) which stat­ed the fa­cil­i­ty is next on its agen­da to un­der­go ma­jor re­fur­bish­ment in Fis­cal 2024.

Last month, SporTT re­ceived Cab­i­net ap­proval to con­duct the re­pairs need­ed to bring the 46-year-old fa­cil­i­ty up to stan­dard and to sat­is­fy safe­ty re­quire­ments.

This fol­lows the re­fur­bish­ment of the neigh­bour­ing and equal­ly icon­ic Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, which host­ed the Caribbean Youth Games in Au­gust 2023.

In 2022, SporTT com­mis­sioned a Pre­lim­i­nary Fa­cil­i­ty Con­di­tion As­sess­ment Re­port to eval­u­ate the con­di­tion of the fa­cil­i­ty. The re­port iden­ti­fied sev­er­al ar­eas for re­fur­bish­ment, but al­so not­ed that there are no vis­i­ble signs of struc­tur­al chal­lenges at the venue.

The Com­plex was sub­se­quent­ly ear­marked for re­pairs, fol­low­ing the com­ple­tion of the re­fur­bish­ment of Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um. The works at Jean Pierre Com­plex will in­clude gen­er­al re­fur­bish­ment of the fa­cil­i­ty, along with re­place­ment of the spec­ta­tor seats, the wash­room and play­er fa­cil­i­ties, the score­board and the hard courts.

The fa­cil­i­ty was built in 1978 to host the 1979 Net­ball World Cham­pi­onships, when Trinidad and To­ba­go’s “Ca­lyp­so Girls” were crowned joint cham­pi­ons in the glob­al tour­na­ment. Fol­low­ing this vic­to­ry, the venue was named af­ter T&T net­ball icon, the late Eu­ge­nia “Jean” Pierre, who led the team to its finest-ever fin­ish in the com­pe­ti­tion.

The Com­plex fea­tures in­door seat­ing for 825 per­sons, while the out­er east and west courts have a com­bined 9,932 seats. Be­yond net­ball, the fa­cil­i­ty has host­ed var­i­ous sports—in­clud­ing vol­ley­ball, bas­ket­ball, hock­ey, ta­ble ten­nis, bad­minton, gym­nas­tics and mar­tial arts—as well as a va­ri­ety of cul­tur­al events.