Several journalists criticise the neglect of the Jesús Suárez Gayol, Nicaragua Libre de Herradura and Pontón sports stadiums.
14ymedio, Havana, 5 November 2025 — The infrastructure of Cuban baseball is in intensive care. The ruins and neglect of the Jesús Suárez Gayol (Artemisa) and José María Pérez Capote sports complexes, known as Pontón, confirm this. The most recent case of neglect was reported by journalist Osbel Benítez Polo. The Nicaragua Libre stadium in Herradura, Pinar del Río, looks like “a pasture for grazing cattle”.
The journalist showed images of “the neglect, carelessness, misery and lack of compliance on the part of the management of the National Institute of Sport, Physical Education and Recreation (Inder) in the province”.
Benítez accused the provincial director of Inder, Daniellys Sánchez, of negligence for not replying to the request from the parents of the young athletes. “The answers have not yet arrived,” he said, adding that “no maintenance work has been carried out for four months.”
The journalist expressed his confidence that “for the sake of baseball, sooner rather than later, this space will flourish again for the good of the community.”
Last March, Inder Vice-President Omar Venegas Echemendía acknowledged that there were 1,325 sports facilities on the island that were “rated as fair to poor”. The initiative of the workers’ union in the context of the last School Games made it possible to recover 227 properties, he said.
Venegas offered to “continue working” so that “there will be fewer and fewer venues” with poor ratings. However, the specialised media continue to complain.
Last September, DPorto Sports LLC complained that the lack of attention from sports authorities led to the ruin of the Jesús Suárez Gayol stadium. The colossus is falling to pieces. “The poor condition of the building was aggravated by the impact of saltpetre as it was near the sea,” said journalist Yasel Porto Gómez, adding that “it received its coup de grâce with Hurricane Rafael, which hit the province of Artemisa three years ago.”
Despite failed attempts to restore it since 2012, Porto recalled, “there is nothing more to be done today.” The Jesús Suárez Gayol stadium hosted several National Series games and was one of the few with artificial lighting. It was also one of the stadiums with the best infrastructure in the now defunct Habana Campo. “All that is and will be history, unfortunately.”
What that has left is the memory of the performances of players such as Jonder Martínez, Luis Cuesta, Juan Carlos Millán, Pedro Arozarena, and Miguel Alfredo González.
El combinado deportivo Pontón en que se encuentran dos campos de béisbol, una pista de atletismo, una sala de judo, canchas de tenis y una piscina olímpica luce deplorable. Pese a ello, la Asamblea Municipal del Poder Popular Centro Habana publicó en mayo pasado una foto de un partido de la categoría Sub-10 entre Centro Habana y el Cerro señalando que se recuperaban las instalaciones deportivas.
The Pontón sports complex, which includes two baseball fields, an athletics track, a judo hall, tennis courts and an Olympic-size swimming pool,looks in a terrible state. Despite this, last May the Centro Habana Municipal Assembly of People’s Power published a photo of an Under-10 match between Centro Habana and Cerro, pointing out that the sports facilities were being restored.
The players’ families had to sit on dry grass due to the lack of stands, and the pitch was bare in several places.
Translated by GH
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