Expect more

Heartbreak Hotel. So, we hear that Sterling Hotels is going to buy the resort. Sterling is run by a friend of Sillerman, and Sillerman has shares in the company. Sterling is international, "affordable," and has no properties in the Caribbean. Madonna sang about it, "Like a virgin, touched for the very first time."

But, Sterling, we hear, does not want the golf course. They only want Sillerman’s Heartbreak Hotel and associated structures. So, the AXA government is in the process of buying or leasing the right to operate the golf course and its associated club house and restaurant. The running cost of the golf course alone is US$6,000.00 per day. They have worked out that in order to cover annual running costs of the course alone there would need to be a minimum of 30 golfers per day, every day, every year, each paying $200.00. There is some question of who will manage the course and how, since the club house belongs to Flag, the golf carts were never paid for, and the golf cart company is reclaiming them, the ancillary costs will be met. None of this calculation even begins to factor in the cost of buying or leasing the golf course from Flag. That figure is not even being talked about.

My take on it is that US$6,000.00 a day is nothing. That's only $180,000.00 a month. Or, $2,160,000.00 per year. Perhaps, if we closed down one or two of the primary schools, there would be enough savings to cover the total cost?

And, we might even be able to almost break even on the golf course. Let people use it for $200.00 and, if it does well in the winter, the revenue will just pour in. An average of 7.5 foursomes per day should bring that amount in. That is 30 paying golfers per day, every day, all year long. Perhaps, all members of the Anguilla Golf Association will be obliged to play once per week. Perhaps, the hotels will oblige by advertising themselves as exclusively golfing resorts. We might even pressure them into taking shares. It all appears quite feasible?

The ancillary benefits for the hotels, restaurants, the Sunshine Shack, and the entire tourism sector, would be very big. The benefits of putting construction workers back to work would be enormous. Or, will they all be Chinee?

But, they better get out there and figure out the advanced watering system TODAY before the grass dies!

This would be an election winner for the United Front, if they can pull it off!