The Local Organising Committee (LOC) for this year’s National Sports Festival, tagged Gateway 2024, may have scored a great mark, if its declaration of securing a 25,000 hostel accommodation for athletes at Babcock University for the Games is anything to go by.
The issue of accommodation for athletes has been a major problem in past editions of the National Sports Festival. In most cases, athletes from various states are camped in dirty and unsecured environment leading to protest and uncomplimentary remarks about the organisers.
But the Chairman of the LOC for Gateway 2024 National Sports Festival, Bukola Olopade, told The Guardian, yesterday, that Babcock University, which has capacity for about 12,000 bed spaces, would serve as Games Village for all the athletes that would participate in the festival.
“When we accepted to host the National Sports Festival, we told the entire world that Ogun State would provide the best facilities. We did it before in 2009, when Ijebu-Ode was picked as one of the venues for the FIFA Youths Championships. We also did it in 2006, when we hosted the National Sports Festival for the first time. To avoid a situation, whereby athletes will grumble over hotel accommodation, we approached the management of Babcock University to be the Games Village, and our request has been granted. This key development would positively affect all our logistics planning as we will have all the athletes in one place.
“His Excellency Governor Dapo Abiodun is so excited with what we are doing and he is giving us the assistance we need. In a matter of days, we will communicate to Nigerians a date that will be more suitable to host the Sports Festival because we have to work with Babcock University to get a date that will suite their academic calendar,” Olopade stated.
