Thursday, March 28, 2024

Soccer-Ex in the bag

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BARBADOS?BEAT?OUT “six to seven” other destinations in the Americas to earn the right to host the first-ever Soccer-Ex Americas, scheduled for October 21 and 22 this year.
Between 1 000 and 1 500 sports officials are expected to attend the event, which will be held at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
President of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football, Jeffrey Webb, leads the list of confirmed names for the football conference.
Also confirmed are commissioner of Major League Soccer, Don Garber, chief executive officer of Liverpool Football Club, Ian Ayre, and head of the elite development squad for Manchester City, Patrick Viera, among other big names in the business of football.
Chairman of the Barbados Tourism Authority, Adrian Elcock, told SATURDAY SUN?SPORT that several factors would have made the island a perfect choice for the event, including the weekly airlift out of Brazil.
“That was also an important consideration of the Soccer-Ex family, because they felt that by having that link from Latin America that created an opportunity, because as many people know, getting visas are a challenge for many persons in Latin America, so they can’t get into the United States.
“Having a location that brings ease of travel to attend the forum without having to go through the US was a big selling point . . .  So for all the critics of the Brazil investment, these are the ways it could [translate] into future growth for us,” he said, following a press conference for the Soccer-Ex Americas forum at Hilton Barbados on Tuesday.
The chairman said the BTA also hosted Webb and “explained to him why we thought it would be beneficial to him to choose Barbados to host this event”.
Elcock added that Webb and chief executive officer of Soccer-Ex, Duncan Revie, were long-term repeat visitors to Barbados, and that also worked in the island’s favour. Barbados’ bid was accepted in December.
“What we had to do basically was show that we had the infrastructural capacity to host the event. Hosting 1 500 people is not an easy feat, so what we had to do was show we had the amount of rooms, the airlifts and a financial consideration that we had to commit to which we have done and we have signed the contract.
“We also had to ensure that there was a level of infrastructural companies [in terms of multimedia and event planning]. Once they considered all of those elements, they considered it at their board meeting and they awarded it.”
He said he believed the two-day event could reap significant benefits, especially as it is being held in a traditionally slow period for tourism, as well as creating chances for spill-off investments in other sectors. (LW)
 

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