Barbados National Stadium


Barbados National Stadium is a multi-use outdoor stadium in Waterford, St. Michael, Barbados. It was officially opened on 23 October 1970 by Prince Charles. Situated approximately 4.3 km northeast of Bridgetown and it is located at Stadium Road, Codrington, St. Michael, the Stadium is currently used mostly for football matches.

Structure

The Stadium holds 15,000 seats with the five stands such as The Clarence Jemmott "A" Stand; The O'Donnell "Don" Norville "B" Stand; The VIP Stand; The Jim Wedderburn "C" Stand; and The Patricia "Patsy" Callender "D" Stand; and also there is the Randolph Fields Velodrome and the Jaycees Gate at the north side of the Stadium.
In 2006, FIFA condemned the national football stadium of Barbados though the country was hoping to demolish and rebuild the ground before its 2010 World Cup qualification campaign begins. In 2011 the Barbadian government estimated the cost to re-engineer the stadiums' running track at 2 million dollars. No date has been determined when the funding could be sourced or the works could be carried out. But Barbados' past World Championships in Athletics gold-medalist Ryan Brathwaite has publicly condemned the current state of the National Stadiums' track infrastructure. In 2010 the stadium started hosting the Joseph Payne Memorial Classic, a competitive event among Barbadian secondary school students. The National Stadium's five stands were closed in April 2015 because of the rusty pieces of debris which fell from the steel which stood underneath the roofs. From December 2018 to January 2019, the roofs on all the five stands were removed and soon the whole of the Stadium would soon be demolished. It will soon be constructed into a brand new stadium with new stands, car parks and new LED stadium lights as soon as possible.