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PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, September 24, 2015 - Officials of the
T&T Volleyball Federation (TTVF) are today lauding a golden
handshake from the management of local cable company Flow
Trinidad valued at $5 million to be dispensed over five years.
Brian Collins, managing director of Flow Trinidad/Columbus
Communications made the announcement at a media conference
yesterday held at the President’s Box at the Queen’s Park Oval
on Tragarete Road in Port-of-Spain.
The move by the private sector telecoms provider came even as
national sporting agencies brace for possible cuts back in their
budgetary allocations from the Ministry of Sport, as the Keith
Rowley-led administration moved to reduce the national budget
deficit. But in spite of the state’s planned shift in spending,
Flow announced plans twice, in the past seven day, to dole out
$10 million to NSOs. The T&T Olympic Committee (TTOC) was the
first beneficiary. Now it was the turn of the TTVF.
Collins said, “This deal is $5 million. The split is cash
contributions directed to the Federation on an annualised basis;
sponsorship of a number of athletes up to a quarter million per
annum and promotion and advertising support for another
quarter-of-a-million dollars per annum for five years to help to
promote the sport: both beach volleyball and regular volleyball
in T&T. The entire goal would be to increase attendance (and)
increase participation at all levels. And, wouldn’t it be great
for the T&T volleyball team to be the first (local) team to make
the Olympic in 2016 or 2020.”
He added, “I am pleased that Flow has been able to come together
with the TTVF to announce this partnership, which has been in
the making a little over a year. We took our time to get to know
Daymian (Stewart) and the team. Basically, we were sort of drawn
in by their passion to try and expand the sport, not only within
T&T, but also raise T&T’s national team to an Olympic standard.
During one of our meetings, I was surprised to hear that there
are so many T&T athletes actually playing volleyball outside of
T&T. This for us touches the schools element to, right up to the
teams. The desire to try and raise the game and raise the bar
was the thing that won us over and they came and gave multiple
and very professional and passionate presentations. That was one
of the reasons that we bought into what they wanted to do.”
Collins made it clear that Flow was not seeking mileage through
these associations and that its primary goal was to make sure
the Federation was in partnership with someone they knew they
could rely on, as well as grow and develop the sport.
Further, the telecoms executive made it clear Flow’s practice
was not to give money and walk away, but rather explore ways in
which the company’s personnel could help.
“When a T&T athlete does well in sport, it benefits all of us.
And we are confident that volleyball players deserve to and will
be more popular as a result of this particular partnership,” he
said.
Stewart, president of the TTVF, said his executive also had
strategic plans to partner which corporate T&T.
“That’s the only way we would be able to achieve what we want to
do. We believe the TTVF and it story is a well-kept secret and
through this sponsorship and partnership we can tell T&T the
story that we have to tell of great athletes; some athletes who
are rated among the top in the world. But they lack the
opportunity and the support that is necessary. Of course, I take
a lot of the licks for not providing the support. What Flow has
done for us, has given us the opportunity to support our
athletes better,” he said.
Stewart added, “We are the current Caribbean champion indoor–men
and women–and the women have been the Caribbean champion since
2005. Just last week Daneil (Williams) and Fabien (Whitfield)
placed third on the continental tour. What we did this year
with Daneil and Fabien, we sacrificed a little bit and injected
a little bit of support into their development. So they were on
tour for the last four months.
They came home Monday. We saw instant progression. They would
normally rank ninth to tenth on the continental tour. That
little investment brought us a bronze medal last week. So with
this partnership, we expect all our national teams and all our
programmes to improve.” |
