I’m back once again to talk about something we can really do here in the Virgin Islands. And that is drag racing, for our young men who love that sport and for those who would love to get involved.
Recently, I was surfing the Internet, checking drag racing articles of the past to see if I missed anything. I saw one dated Jan. 19, 2012. The talk about drag racing came up at a budget address when Premier Dr. Orlando Smith was asked about the drag racing project. He stated that the government was planning to develop sports tourism and would be moving to build facilities for golfing and other sports to boost overnight business and increase the attractiveness of the destination.
I didn’t hear anyone making noise about the government building a golf course, but the drag strip for the people of the VI, which only needed government approval, was seen by some as crazy. You know they will have to do a feasibility study, and that one is not going to cost $94,000.
A satirical column in the Beacon newspaper also caught my eye. The writer was talking about an imagined government plan to introduce donkey drag racing and wanting to build a track to race donkeys. Well, when I saw this I had to laugh, and my wife also had a laugh. Really? Donkey drag racing?
Golf questions
We keep talking about buying local and supporting our own, but look at what they are doing. Who is going golfing from the VI? Who is coming from the other countries, where they already have golf courses? What will be the fee to play? What will be the membership fee? Do we really feel that if we build a golf course here, it will bring people to our territory? If you don’t want to give us the okay to have drag racing here, maybe you should put the money into cricket or track and field.
If a golf course is such a great idea, why haven’t the private islands built one yet? Do you know what it costs to build a golf course and maintain it? Do you know how much land is required? The book Building a Practical Golf Facility, published by the American Society of Golf Course Architects, gives an idea: “A typical par four hole of 400 yards will take up to 10.4 acres (420 yards long with buffers by 120 yards minimum width). So, a 10-acre parcel could contain one 400-yard-long hole, or perhaps three or four par threes ranging in length from 60 yards to 150 yards, and with skilled design, perhaps more.”
The average cost to build a brand-new golf course with traditional amenities will run between $1.6 and $4 million. However, there are many courses throughout the world that have cost significantly more than that, even reaching above the $50 million mark on some occasions.
Drag strip cost
I’m not even going to say the cost to build a drag strip, because we were not asking for government money. I’m just saying that here is an idea in drag racing that residents brought to the table that could help a lot of the young men and women in a lot of ways. When the government doesn’t have to spend a cent of taxpayers’ money to construct it, and can only gain from it, why are you not giving the okay?
Are we so arrogant here in the VI that we forget our own young people to build something that we don’t really care about?
The people for whom you want to build this golf course come to use our beaches and to sail our beautiful waters, not to golf. They can do that in Miami. Think about it.
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