News

On Wednesday, March 9th the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee hosted its first Sports Marketing and Business of Sport Conference under the theme "Towards Economic Growth and Diversification - Trinidad and Tobago Sport Rising to the Challenge at the Hyatt. In delivering welcome remarks to sports stakeholders including entrepreneurs, athletes, executives of National Sport Organizations (NSOs) and members of the business community, Brian Lewis,

By many yardsticks, 2015 must go down as a pretty rotten year for sport.

The crises at FIFA and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) have put doping and governance issues squarely at the top of the Olympic Movement’s agenda, highlighting how it has struggled to cope with the full consequences of the financial windfall which the digital media era has delivered.

Adidas chief executive Herbert Hainer insists the German sportswear company has not cancelled its sponsorship contract with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), despite reports to the contrary surfacing earlier this year.

Prime Minister Keith Rowley yesterday gave the assurance that T&T is not bankrupt, even as he acknowledged that the Government has a problem in paying its debts to public servants and contractors/suppliers on time.

Is the vision of a T&T Sport Industry contributing billions of dollars to the local economy by 2030 realistic or pie in the sky?

Dissolve Government Information Services Ltd (GISL), dispose of its television station TV4 and cease all contract work. These are among the recommendations contained in the report on the future of Caribbean New Media Group (CNMG) and GISL, prepared by the company’s board under former chairman Helen Drayton.

“We got your back” is the message Minister Smith is sending to Trinidad and Tobago’s athletes preparing for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The Government is doing all that they possibly can to assist with the available funds, and know how important the athletes are to the country. “We want you, the athletes, to be examples to the youth and of course to honour the red, white and black.”

Trinidad and Tobago's sport industry can generate billions of TT dollars in addition to being a net foreign exchange earner.

I see, in Trinidad and Tobago, the discrimination against foreign-born athletes is alive and kicking.

Full disclosure: I was born in the UK and represented T&T with all of my pride. I also have more than a passing interest in gymnastics. So I have followed the personalities, issues and discussion around Trinidad and Tobago gymnastics very closely.