By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas’ sports tourism brand has continued to expand this year with a number of international events being hosted in the capital.

After staging the 2024 BTC World Athletics Relays in May, preparations are being made for the return of the Bahamas Bowl slated for January 4 at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium.

The venue has been under construction since the latter part of 2023 and renovations were briefly put on hold for the hosting of the World Relays but picked back up shortly after.

Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture Mario Bowleg provided an update on the stadium’s facelift ahead of January’s football showdown.

“The stadium repairs are going fine. We are happy that the construction company has agreed to make a little bit of an adjustment in their scope of work to make sure that we are able to host the games. Everything is going quite fine, all of the infrastructure is going to be in place come January,” Bowleg said. 

The Bahamas Bowl, the longest running international bowl game in college football history, was relocated to Charlotte last year due to repairs at the national venue. This time around the one-day event will be hosted in January and will be played on Saturday for the first time.

Minister Bowleg said international events of this calibre are always welcomed as the sports in paradise brand continues to blossom. “Sports in paradise has always been very important to us. Anytime we have an opportunity to hold events such as the Bowl game or any other international events where we can get heads in beds is always our number one focus and the exposure we get. When you have media like ESPN involved that gives an even greater opportunity for exposure for the country,” he said.

In addition to sporting events, professional teams are also making The Bahamas their preferred destination for other endeavours.

National Basketball Association (NBA) teams Miami Heat and Philadelphia Sixers will conduct their training camps at the Baha Mar and Atlantis Resorts respectively.

For the Heat, their training camp will run from October 1-5 at Baha Mar. This is the NBA organisation’s fourth time hosting their training in The Bahamas.

The Sixers are hosting their training camp away from home for the third straight year. The team has a stacked roster going into next season that includes Bahamian sharpshooter Eric “EJ” Gordon.

Bowleg said the goal is to maintain these partnerships for The Bahamas to continue to get exposure.

“We definitely want to see more professional teams not only from the NBA but also baseball and in soccer because we want to utilise the facilities that we have here that were built for that reason. The Sixers come this weekend and Miami comes next week…We want to look and see how we could continue partnerships with these international bodies and see how we could continue to give The Bahamas the exposure it needs,” he said.