Sir Vincent Beache Stadium Report
Minister of Sports Kaschaka Cupid said the planning and management of the Sir Vincent Beache Stadium (also known as the Diamond Sporting Facility) were surrounded by several controversies, primarily involving a lack of transparency, the exclusion of key stakeholders, and ignored maintenance concerns:
Cupid told parliament that the stadium’s planning and construction were reportedly treated as a “national secret”. Vital details and full plans were withheld from the opposition, professional experts, and even the sport’s governing body, Team Athletics St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The stadium committee was marginalized from the process. Controversially, the project was placed under the direct jurisdiction of the Ministry of Economic Planning instead of the Ministry of Sports, which would typically oversee such a facility.
Cupid said intense lack of transparency led to the resignation of the former chairman of the stadium committee, the late Mr. Garth Saunders. “He reportedly stepped down in “disgust with the lack of information regarding the project, despite his prior involvement in the comprehensive design process alongside an international company”.
Team Athletics repeatedly requested information about the track’s certification and made several complaints to the former administration regarding the surface’s deterioration and lack of maintenance. When Team Athletics formally wrote to the Minister of Planning on March 6, 2025, to warn about the impending expiration of the track’s certification, the letter was never acknowledged.