Greene: No figure for YASCO upgrade yet

A specific cost is yet to be attached to the planned upgrading and refurbishing of the country’s lone track and field facility, the YASCO Sports Complex.
This is according to the country’s Minister of Sports and President of the NOC, EP Chet Greene, who said that although funding has been secured through international partners, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO), track builders Mondo Track, is in the process of crunching the figures.
“That was when we had discussions of taking down YASCO completely and doing all fresh civil works. But what he has been able to do is retain the civil works that we have in place and to add to it minimally to achieve the objective of having a certified and certifiable track,” Greene said.
“Don’t ask me this morning [23 October] to disclose the figures because as I’ve been saying all along, he has gone back to Miami to quantify some of those civil works, for example, which will impact the overall cost,” he added.
Initial figures had placed the estimated cost between  6 and 10 million U.S. dollars but Greene is hoping for lower figures ahead of the anticipated November 1 start date.
The involved entities, the minister added, have also looked at the additional cost of seating and other amenities which he said would come at a later stage.
“The government, the Olympic Committee and the athletics association have all been locking horns and knocking heads in this particular project. The issues of the stands and other amenities in YASCO, those too, are in focus. But as we promised, this will be a phased approach with the first phase being the delivery of a track. The amenities in YASCO, to include seating, forms part of another phase of the project which I cannot and will not speak to at this stage notwithstanding the fact there has been discussions on those,” he said.
Works at YASCO is estimated to be completed by end of February next year.