14ymedio, Miguel García, Holguín, 15 May 2024 — The lack of maintenance and deterioration are the last blow for the Calixto García stadium, home of the Holguín baseball team. According to a source in the city, its walls “are peeling off ” and the authorities have prevented the fans from sitting near the areas where the collapse is imminent.
“The scaffolding of the towers on the left side has been declared in a state of collapse,” the official journalist Ernesto A Jomarron Cardoza denounced on Tuesday on the Facebook account ’Somos los Cachorros de Holguín’.
The communicator noticed the problem because the traditional third-base stands were empty during the match between Holguín and Artemisa. “The doors on the left side were kept closed and they are going to stay that way.”He lamented the lack of maintenance of the stadium’s towers, founded in 1979 and considered by Fidel Castro as an “architectural jewel”.
“As something never seen before, the team will play without an audience above its dugout (the area where players wait for their turn during the game),” said Cardoza.
What is even more outrageous is that last March, days before the voice of “play ball” was heard to start the National Series, the National Baseball Commission (CNB -Spanish acronym) detected “serious problems” in some fields.
During a tour of the provinces, the officials identified that in several stadiums maintenance was required on the “mound, lawn, benches, changing rooms and bathrooms”. They also mentioned that “clay was needed to work the field; they also needed to raise the pitching mound, center the home plate, water the lawn more to make it growth and finish the mowing”.
One of the stadiums was Calixto García. The national baseball commissioner, Juan Reinaldo Pérez Pardo, supervised the building and detected the “need for conditioning the bases and the home plate,” the pro-government newspaper ’¡Ahora!’ published at the time.
At that time they did not notice any damage or cracks in the roof, which have forced the closure of the towers on the left side.
The sports authorities’ neglect of the stadiums has also occurred in the buildings for the practice of soccer. Last January, 14ymedio denounced the state of oblivion which the Pedro Marrero stadium has fallen into. The colossus located in Havana’s municipality of Playa has turned into “grazing land,” a track and field coach lamented. The deterioration is visible: the grass is worn out and the track is full of potholes.
This stadium has not received any of the eight million dollars the International Federation of Football Association (FIFA) gave to Cuba between 2016 and 2022 to improve its sports facilities. However, the property did receive money for its renovation, stressed Ariel Maceo Téllez. Unfortunately, it is still just as bad.
Another abandoned colossus is the Pan American Stadium in Havana. The sports complex built by Fidel Castro in 1991 is in decline. The lack of maintenance together with the poor quality of the construction materials that were used for its construction and its proximity to the coast has caused the salt residue from the seawater to wear down its structure.
Translated by LAR
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