The F6 Multipurpose Sports Complex and its demise

The F6 Multipurpose Sports Complex and its demise

When it first opened to the facilitate the sporting needs of the people of Islamabad, some three-and-a-half years ago, the Multipurpose Sports Complex in the F6 Markaz became the Mecca for football, basketball and tennis lovers living in the capital.

The tennis courts were superb, the basketball court was a gem with its fibre-glass boards and the futsal ground introduced artificial turf to the local football mad population; couple all of that with the massive floodlights and it was a sportsman’s dream.

Yet, like with everything that the Capital Development Authority and the Government seem to have a hand in it began a slow, yet steady, decline.

Not properly maintained and overused, the facilities began deteriorating and are now a shadow of its former self. The basketball has mini-craters in it and the futsal ground has areas where the turf has been worn and torn away, revealing almost bare concrete.

Almost everyone who plays there asks the same question, ‘when are you going to repair it?’ and the answer is always ‘next month’.

Add in the raise in the rates charged to book the ground and if anything the facility seems more like a black hole for sucking away people’s money than it is a place where people can come for a positive experience.

Costing Rs. 1,400 to book for an hour when it started (during the day) the price has gone up to different amounts, depending on how well you know the person at the ground.

At night, the price is even higher but ironically the facility is not allowed to make use of its floodlights for certain prescribed periods of load shedding, despite the fact that they have a generator.

In fact, there was one incident where the police actually showed up and made the groundkeeper switch the generator off because it was violating the absurd rule.

Surely, the government would be supporting the idea of a healthy sporting activity for the people of the city to escape load shedding and other issues?

If one walks into the ground now, they will see a worn down facility that just needs a little bit of investment and work to take it back to what it was in the beginning.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=578

Posted by Musa Afridi on Oct 18 2011. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry