…MSC General Secretary Joe Chapman questions ownership, calls for transparency
By Rawle Toney
(Kaieteur News) – With the remodeled Mackenzie Sports Club (MSC) preparing to reopen its doors for the return of the acclaimed Kashif and Shanghai Football Tournament, questions surrounding the ownership, management and development of the historic Linden facility have resurfaced.
General Secretary of the Mackenzie Sports Club, Joseph Chapman, has publicly chronicled the long-running issues involving the club, its membership and executive, while calling for greater transparency over the legal ownership of the property.
The plaque which stipulates the handing over of the new Pavilion and Club House on December 8, 1956.
The facility, located at 464 Greenheart Street, Mackenzie, Linden, is scheduled to open on December 13, when it will host the opening ceremony and first match-day of the Kashif and Shanghai tournament.
The occasion will carry particular significance, as the competition returns to the venue where it was first staged in 1992.
The remodeled facility, which has increasingly been referred to in some quarters as the “Mackenzie Stadium,” is also approaching its 70th anniversary, adding further historical weight to its reopening.
Chapman’s concerns date back to August 2020, when the MSC Executive, led by President Avery Trim, held an informal meeting with Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Charles Ramson Jr. to discuss the Government’s plans to improve the facility.
MSC Ground General Secretary, Joseph Chapman
Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Kashif Muhammad, was also part of the ministerial team.
According to Chapman, Ramson presented the proposed development as a collaborative undertaking between the Government and the MSC.
“I am happy to have the support from the MSC, the executive. We would like to do some work here, and it is important for me to do work in a collaborative way, where we get the support and cooperation from management and the members of the MSC,” Ramson stated at the time.
The minister also sought to reassure the club that the Government did not intend to displace its authority.
“I don’t intend to supersede anybody. I want a working relationship and intend to involve you in every step of the way as far as the projects [we] intend to proceed.”
Chapman said those assurances created an expectation within the MSC Executive that the proposed redevelopment would be carried out through consultation with the club and its membership.
However, he contends that the situation changed significantly by October 2022, when Ramson returned to Linden and announced that the MSC had become the property of the Government and that construction was expected to commence shortly.
The new MSC Ground, now MSC Stadium
That position, Chapman said, immediately raised questions within the Committee of Management, particularly because the minister had previously indicated that the Government was not seeking to take over the facility and that the MSC belonged to the people of Linden.
There was also an understanding, according to Chapman, that the MSC Executive would be shown concept drawings for the proposed redevelopment before construction began. He maintains that this did not happen.
The MSC subsequently wrote to the Government and the minister on several occasions seeking meetings and clarification on the development plans and the future status of the facility.
Chapman said the Committee’s position was that there had not been meaningful engagement with the MSC or relevant local authorities concerning the project.
At the heart of the dispute, however, is the question of ownership.
Following Ramson’s October 2022 announcement that the Government was the new owner of the MSC, the Committee of Management wrote requesting documentation to establish how ownership of the property had been acquired or transferred.
Chapman said the Committee has yet to receive the documentation it requested.
He also pointed to a 2019 meeting during which the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) sought information concerning ownership of the MSC facility.
According to Chapman, when Ramson met with MSC representatives in October 2022, he indicated that ownership had subsequently been transferred from NICIL to the Government in April of that year.
The ownership issue is further complicated by the facility’s history. Chapman recalled that more than 25 years ago, a previous PPP/C Government had also sought to have the MSC’s land and assets transferred to the ministry responsible for sport.
That proposal, according to the MSC Committee of Management, was rejected. Chapman said representatives of the ministry at the time were directed to a plaque displayed in the MSC Lounge, which the Committee considered relevant to the history and status of the facility.
The Committee has also maintained that several important documents concerning the Club’s ownership were destroyed during a 2012 fire at the Linmine Secretariat. The fire occurred amid protests on the Mackenzie-Wismar Bridge over proposed increases in electricity tariffs in Linden.
For Chapman, the history underscores the need for clarity rather than continued uncertainty.
He is therefore calling for the relevant ownership documentation to be made public or provided to the MSC so that the legal status of the facility can be established conclusively.
The issue takes on added significance as the Government-funded redevelopment prepares to give the historic venue a new lease on sporting life.
The MSC has been central to Linden’s sporting and social landscape for generations, and its ground has hosted football, cricket, athletics and other major activities. Its return to the national sporting calendar through the Kashif and Shanghai tournament is expected to attract significant attention from Lindeners at home and abroad.
The December 13 reopening will consequently represent more than the return of a football tournament. It will also mark another chapter in the story of a facility that has been deeply woven into Linden’s sporting identity.
As the Kashif and Shanghai tournament prepares to bring the spotlight back to the MSC, Chapman believes the occasion should also provide an opportunity to settle the outstanding questions surrounding its ownership and future management.
For the MSC General Secretary, transparency is central to that process. If ownership was lawfully transferred to the Government, he argues, the documentation should establish when, how and under what authority that transfer occurred.
Source: Kaieteur News
