by AMANDA LYNCH-FOSTER

$316 MILLION "FUH CUP".

That is a conservative estimate of how much it will cost Barbados to host the ICC Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2007.

Research done by the SUNDAY SUN has thus far unearthed

BDS$316 326 183 worth of infrastructural improvements and projects related to the tournament which have been done, or are ongoing.

This tally is based on adding up the cost of announced infrastructural projects, the completion deadlines of which have been set for before the CWC begins, or before the first matches are held in Barbados in mid-April.

However, this estimate still does not reflect the true price of the island-wide preparations for the tournament, as the SUNDAY SUN was unable to obtain figures for a number of projects.

This unknown quantity includes the National Cultural Foundation-managed cultural and entertainment events, yesterday's massive Kensington Forever re-opening event, the cost of training 3 000 people in food handling procedures, or the cost of the park-and-ride programme.

Furthermore, this figure does not include private sector spending related to the tournament.

Chairman of the World Cup Barbados, Chris de Caires, conceded that while the figures might seem large, much of the work that has been done would have been done eventually anyhow.

"We're not doing this just for the World Cup. For example, the roads that are being done, we're not going to dig them back up after the World Cup and those roads would have been done in any event," he told the SUNDAY SUN yesterday.

For his part, de Caires estimated the expenditure at between $100 million and $200 million, but added that "the benefits of that are enormous".

He said that during the tournament, they were anticipating the island would recoup around $230 million: $30 million from gate receipts and $200 million from visitor spending during that period.

He also pointed to the long term legacy benefits of the tournament such as increased exposure of the island's tourism product.

Please see Page 25A.