Sports Industry Policy Will Ensure Our Sporting Infrastructure Are Never Abandoned Again’

The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Chief Sunday Dare, has said that the new reclassification of sports from recreation to business as contained in the Sports Industry Policy will ensure the country’s sporting infrastructures will never suffer any neglect again.            

“With the incentives that have been approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) kicking in shortly, we will be able to leverage on private sector financing of stadium and other infrastructure,” observed the sports minister during the 

inspecting renovation work at the National stadium in Surulere, Lagos.                

 The stadium, built some 51 years ago has been abandoned to rot away for almost 18 years with most of the critical infrastructure either stolen or are in a state of disrepair.                          

 In other climes with flourishing sports culture, the standard years for a stadium before major renovations is 30 years. The National Stadium in Surulere is 51 years old. It has been left unmaintained for 18 years

But Dare insisted that sports as business and the enactment of the Sports Industry Policy will be a major achievement under his watch as Sports Minister. 

Instead of towing the easy ways of  previous Ministers in the Sports Ministry, Dare took the bull by the horn to rehabilitate Nigeria’s major sporting infrastructures.           ‘

“A lot of people supported me for starting the journey to renovating the National Stadium in Lagos, Abuja and Ibadan. Yes,it was a bold move in the face of dwindling government revenue and we had to think of an alternative way of starting it. 

“I can understand why the place has been abandoned for years. The cost of renovating stadiums all over the world is enormous. The Santiago Bernabue stadium in Madrid is estimated to cost $700m  while a 15,000 capacity Maldives stadium will cost $25m. The estimate we got for National stadium in Lagos is $41m, which is about N21 billion.  

How much did it cost to rebuild Wembley Stadium? The stadium was built by Australian firm Multiplex at a cost of £798 million (£1.27 billion). Two partially retractable roof structures over the east and west ends of the stadium can be opened to allow sunlight and aid pitch growth. The Tottenham Hotspur 61,000 capacity Stadium in London, with building started in 2013 and finally completed six years later in 2019 costs an astronomical $1.4 billion.

“We wanted 10 sponsors to take up different sections of the stadium but only  Chief Adebutu Kessington  hearkened to our call,” the minister recalled.

“I also want to stay a special thank you to Alhaji Aliko Dangote who came in for us and the youths of Nigeria by fixing the Moshood Abiola stadium. Julius Berger who constructed the stadium submitted a bill of N1.2b yearly as maintenance cost. That amount will be close to N5b in 2023,” revealed Dare.