The Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny of Trinidad and To­ba­go (UDE­COTT) said that the ren­o­va­tion works be­ing un­der­tak­en at the Jean Pierre Sports Com­plex will take eight months to be com­plet­ed.

In a me­dia re­lease, SporTT an­nounced on Mon­day a list of 16 ar­eas that will be ad­dressed, in­clud­ing re­fin­ish­ing of floors and elec­tri­cal fix­tures and works, walls, paint­ing, roofs, and re­fur­bish­ment of the con­ces­sion ar­eas.

The scope of work al­so in­cludes the re­place­ment of the ceil­ing, win­dows, doors, and seat­ing, wash­room and roof re­pairs, and the in­stal­la­tion of the score­board.”

The Jean Pierre Sports Com­plex is the pre­ferred venue for the North Zone Bas­ket­ball Com­mis­sion of the Na­tion­al Bas­ket­ball Fed­er­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go, the Port-of-Spain Net­ball League, box­ing, among oth­er sport­ing dis­ci­plines, and many tour­na­ments.

The last time the venue was in use was be­fore the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic in 2020. The com­plex has since closed cit­ing health and safe­ty con­cerns dur­ing the pan­dem­ic and has nev­er been used since.

The un­cov­ered out­door sec­tion of the com­plex has been used for en­ter­tain­ment and cul­tur­al ac­tiv­i­ties like the ‘Stink and Dut­ty’ fete and the ‘So­cadrome’ in the last few years, while no in­door sports have tak­en place at the fa­cil­i­ty since be­fore the pan­dem­ic. 

North Zone bas­ket­ball held its first league sea­son in 2023 in sev­er­al out­door courts in San Huan, Bar­batao­ria, Mt. Hope, Laven­tille, and the East-West cor­ri­dor, while the Lystra Lewis Port-of-Spain Net­ball League held its 2024 com­pe­ti­tion at the Wood­brook Youth Fa­cil­i­ty.

Stake­hold­ers (sev­er­al sports or­gan­i­sa­tions) who use the fa­cil­i­ty have been meet­ing with Sports Com­pa­ny of Trinidad and To­ba­go (SporTT) of­fi­cials to give their in­put for the restora­tive work. 

A meet­ing with the stake­hold­ers and Ude­cott is yet to take place but is ex­pect­ed to be con­vened soon.

An anony­mous mem­ber of the stake­hold­ers group told Guardian Me­dia Sports via phone they would like to share the venue and work in part­ner­ship. “If net­ball is us­ing it, hock­ey can come and sell food and drinks. At the end of the day, every­body ben­e­fits. Every­body will sup­port each oth­er.”

The Net­ball As­so­ci­a­tion, the stake­hold­er mem­ber, said the Net­ball As­so­ci­a­tion want­ed con­trol of the fa­cil­i­ty but not­ed the Jean Pierre Com­plex “has al­ways been a mul­ti-pur­pose fa­cil­i­ty.”.

Chair­man of the North Zone Bas­ket­ball Com­mis­sion, Kewsi An­toine, is ex­cit­ed to re­turn to the Mu­cu­rapo fa­cil­i­ty. “It’s ren­o­va­tion work I rec­om­mend be­cause the Jean Pierre Com­plex, from how it was, was in a re­al­ly bad state. The up­grade is need­ed, so I sup­port it 100 per­cent.”

The San Juan Laven­tille Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Vice Chair­man re­it­er­at­ed why the fa­cil­i­ty is need­ed. “Right now we (the North Zone Bas­ket­ball Com­mis­sion) can’t have any bas­ket­ball be­cause we have no in­door fa­cil­i­ties in the North Zone.” He did ad­mit the na­tion­al crime sit­u­a­tion has hin­dered the play­ers and teams from play­ing at the St Paul Street In­door fa­cil­i­ty that last saw bas­ket­ball in Jan­u­ary 2023 with the Big Bas­ket­ball League.

An­oth­er in­door fa­cil­i­ty with­in the North Zone de­mo­graph­ics is the Wood­brook Youth fa­cil­i­ty, a stone’s throw away from the Jean Pierre Sports Com­plex.

“It has Wood­brook, which is con­crete, and the play­ers have a prob­lem play­ing on con­crete floor­ing.”.

Back in 2022, Min­is­ter of Sport Sham­fa Cud­joe then stat­ed the com­plex will be bro­ken down and re­built; how­ev­er, the To­ba­go-West Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment ex­plained she made that pro­nounce­ment based on her knowl­edge, but once the project is placed in UDE­COTT’s hands, the ex­perts would de­ter­mine the best op­tion for the fa­cil­i­ty.

This is the sec­ond time that the Jean Pierre Sports Com­plex, the of­fi­cial home for net­ball, will be up­grad­ed since it last un­der­went re­fur­bish­ment works for the host­ing of the first Caribbean Games in 2009. The games were can­celled be­cause of the H1N1 virus. The Com­plex was opened in 1979 for the fifth Net­ball World Cup, which was won joint­ly by Aus­tralia, New Zealand, and Trinidad and To­ba­go.