Caribbean faces World Cup shortfall

We warned them! That was the message Dr David Estwick told members of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) at a St Michael West branch meeting as he claimed the Caribbean might get less then 25% of the millions regional governments spent on hosting the 2007 World Cup.

Estwick, the shadow minister of economic affairs, said the DLP would take "a wait and see attitude" until all the numbers were crunched after the tournament's final here in Barbados on April 28, before speaking to the country. However, he reiterated yesterday that he found it ridiculous that regional leaders could now be saying they signed onto something they fully did not understand.

"People have been saying we were taken hostage by the International Cricket Council, and based on what I've seen so far, I would tend to agree with that assessment," Estwick said at St Leonard's Boys' School. The St Philip West MP noted that studies had been done on mega sporting events between 1984 and the last Olympic Games, which showed that promises of lucrative profit were empty, and most hosts made less than 25% profit in relation to the amount of money spent.

"We in the DLP were told we were being unpatriotic and all kinds of things, but now the Prime Minister will have to deal with the fall-out from this World Cup. As soon as the event is finished, we will review its economic impact and present our findings to the rest of the country. This is just the tip of the iceberg."

He said the DLP was in no way against the region hosting the world's third largest sporting event, behind FIFA's World Cup or the Olympic Games, but noted that other members of the Opposition had warned the ruling Barbados Labour Party Government about taking such a risk during the region's peak winter tourist season. He said the DLP's warnings, as well as those of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), had been ignored.

"There were IMF warnings with respect to government's spending at a time when the economy carries an external deficit which is 9% of the GDP (gross domestic product). We will spend $1.2 billion on debt service in 2008, which means 49% of our revenue will be on debt alone."