After weeks of assessment, it was announced yesterday by chairman of the committee, Major General Norman McLean at a press conference held at the Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) office.

Providence was one of many areas being considered by the committee to build the stadium, with the most historical being a merger between the Georgetown Cricket Club and the Georgetown Football Club.

The allocated area is largely an active cane field since it is leased to GUYSUCO. The land is however state-owned and permission was given by the Government for construction to go ahead on approximately 25 acres of land.

In particular, the land is sandwiched between Green Field Park to the South and on the Canal South of Nandy Park to the North beyond Green Field Park the land opens out considerable to a dam midway between the Mocha road and Green Field entrance.

After evaluating the area the World Cup Committee, decided that it would be the best choice if not the only choice for the stadium, since not only is it a relatively good quality land, with fine drainage system and big space for hotels or housing accommodation, but it also satisfies the ICC criteria for Security and Parking.
With its close proximity to Georgetown and the airport, and good access from the West Demerara and Essequibo areas, and when the new bypass road is constructed, persons including those from the East Coast of Demerara will have also easy access.

At yesterday’s briefing, McLean said most persons were chastising the World Cup Committee, saying that World Cup 2007 would not become a reality in Guyana. The time used, though, was necessary since only the best location would make the perfect stadium, members added.

McLean said that this would be the largest event for the Caribbean in our lifetime and his committee is doing every thing possible to bring Guyana on par with the rest of the region.

“I think we can rise to the occasion, we have hosted Carifesta whereby housing and other facilities were needed for a number of persons also and we succeeded,” the Major General said.

“We are capable of hosting such events. It is a challenge but we are capable of hosting it.”

WHY GCC-GFC IS NOT POSSIBLE
McLean said that casting aside the merger between the Georgetown Cricket Club and the Georgetown Football Club was necessary even though painful due to lack of facilities for parking and security arrangements.

“If the merger was to be a reality we would have to expand to the North and to the East of the two grounds; we would have to go over Merriman’s Mall which would mean building a new road.”

The Chairman further stated that since 9/11, security measures have been the number one priority and the World Cup by all means is no exception.

“With the One-Kilometre Security Zone in place, the Ministry of Agriculture, among other pubic and private buildings, would have had to be patrolled by the security forces, since these buildings would be encompassed by the One Kilometre Zone.”

With the expansion of the ground there would be no possible place for parking.

Security would be so tight and McLean said that no beverages would likely be served.

The stadium when built would have approximately 15 000 permanent seats and 5 000 makeshifts, if necessary.