Government of Guyana to decide on hosting CPL finals on Tuesday, as T&T Government also launches bid

The Government of Guyana, on Tuesday May 3, will decide upon hosting the semi-finals and finals of this year’s Caribbean Premier League (CPL), as news surface of the CPL officials meeting with the Trinidad and Tobago Government next week.

Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman, had told reporters at a Post Cabinet Press Conference that the Government of Guyana may only pay US$1.5M for the hosting of both the semi-finals and finals of the regional cricket marquee event.

Trotman noted that with Guyana celebrating its 50^th Anniversary as an independent nation, hosting the CPL finals will be a “good injection into the economy”.

When contacted this evening by News Room Sports, a government official said that a meeting was held last Wednesday with officials from the CPL and that Cabinet will meet on Tuesday and deliberate over the finals coming to Guyana.

Meanwhile, Reports emanating from the Twin Island Republic suggest that a late bid from T&T has prompted the organisers to hold off on making a final announcement.  The date set for the final announcement had been April 30^th.

According to the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian the Government of Trinidad and Tobago are attempting to stage a last ditch effort to land the game.  The CPL has put forward an asking price of US$4.5M to host the final and semi-finals of the event.

Last year the ‘finals weekend’ as it is called, was hosted in Trinidad for the second time in the last three years, this time around, however, their offer of US$1.5M fell well short of the mark.

Last year, the T&T government paid US$3.5M to host the event for the second time in the three-year history (the other venue being St Kitts and Nevis).

Initially Trinidad had mentioned to the owners of the CPL that they were not willing to pay US$4.5M to host the matches and instead, they offered US$1.5M which did not fit the bill.

It is understood that Trinidad and Tobago got left behind because of the government’s insistence on paying all the local bills, so that their investment remains in the country and this did not go down well with the CPL, who wanted a cash payout.

The T&T government’s idea of paying the local bills as their investment to hosting the matches was as a result of the recession the country is undergoing at the moment and keeping the money here would have led to movement in the local economy even if it was for a short period.

SMG Insight, the firm hired to audit last year’s CPL, reasoned that by hosting last year’s event, T&T got significant economic and social benefits, which included the direct spend by CPL from hotel to local vendors, travel, media and advertising.

The total direct impact of the 2015 tournament for the T&T economy was stated as US$15.40 million. This was broken down into the direct spend by CPL which was US$3.84 million, accommodation and general expenditure was listed at US$5.63 million, and value produced by the T&T Tourist Board branding at matches was put at US$5.93 million.

The proposal also outlined to all governments that a total of 93,929 fans attended the matches in T&T and as a result 551 jobs were created. In addition, a television audience of 27.3 million persons viewed the games, and a total of 5,703 nights were spent by non-local spectators at the hotels in T&T.