Hockey Federation needs $25m to replace Mona turf

Leighton Levy, Gleaner Writer

The Jamaica Hockey Federation (JHF) is in need of approximately $25 million to replace the existing turf at the Mona Hockey Field.

This has become necessary since the federation intends to attract and host several international tournaments in the very near future. The existing playing surface is 13 years old and is wearing out quickly.

JHF president Victor Tomlinson said the turf is coming apart at the seams and there is significant wear in the high-activity sections such as the goalkeeping area, the penalty spots and the corners.

"Top level international tournaments cannot be held on that turf," the president said. Come November the JHF will host the Pan Am Club Championships so repairs are being carried out to spruce up the existing facility. But as the federation embarks on a programme to raise the sport's profile in Jamaica, it will need to acquire a new playing surface.

Hockey was a relatively popular sport in Jamaica right up to the mid-1990s, but several developments forced the sport into a period of decline.

"Kids used to play hockey on grass for recreational purposes and the shift away from grass limited our ability to show off the sport to people," he said.

Hockey equipment

To get the sport back into the mainstream, the federation began distributing hockey equipment to high schools. He revealed also that the Pan American Hockey Federation currently has a container of hockey equipment in Florida waiting to be distributed across the region so very shortly even more equipment will be distributed to more schools.

Among other remedial measures the JHF plans to employ, is to attract high-profile international tournaments.

"Club championships are the lowest level of international competition that we want here," Tomlinson said. "We're looking at qualifiers, Junior Pan Ams and Pan Am Challenges."

Jamaica has hopes of hosting an international invitational or a Pan Am Junior tournament in 2012, the Caribbean Cup in 2013 and the Pan Am Challenge by 2015 but none of that will be possible without a new turf being installed.

"We will need buy-in from the government and all the stakeholders," Tomlinson said, "but that is where we want to get to."

Tomlinson revealed that the federation received a quotation from Argentinean manufacturer Forbex last year for US$306,000 to install a water-based turf preferable for high-quality international competition.

Dry turfs come in at about half the price but they are not ideally suitable to host the type of international competition that the federation feels is necessary for Jamaica to host to make the sport popular once more.

There have been ongoing discussions with the Sports Development Foundation, Tomlinson said. "They are aware as we have written to them and we have discussed the issue but this is a major investment you just don't get up and spend that kind of money," he said.