The National Sports Centre’s ability to accommodate two major sporting events at almost the same time will be tested this evening when international football and the annual Dash at Dark junior races are held.

To ease the anticipated congestion, the Arboretum is being made available for parking for football fans from 6pm

“The BFA is thankful to the Parks Department,” David Sabir, the Bermuda Football Association general secretary, said. “We’re taking this measure to provide some additional parking for those persons who show up for the football game.”

The junior races on the North Field, which last year attracted about 700 youngsters, are scheduled to start at 6.30pm with the last races to begin at 8.30pm, the same time Bermuda and Grenada are due to kick-off

Linnea Masters, a NSC official, confirmed a request was made to the BFA to start at 8.30pm so as not to clash directly with the races. The stadium has parking for more than 200 cars and parking will be on a first come, first served basis within the grounds.

“We’re hoping that once the game crowd starts to come in the crowd from Dash at Dark will have dwindled to alleviate some of it [congestion],” Masters said. “We’re hoping that because there will be numerous races before then that people [there for the Dash at Dark] will probably have left and that will allow more space for spectators for the football match. We don’t anticipate a major problem.”

Mairi Redmond, the race director for the Dash at Dark which is for children aged four to 12, said roughly 650 children are expected to take part in the races.

“It is definitely going to be busy,” Redmond said. “I didn’t know anything about it [football game] until Trevor Madeiros, the facilities manager at the National Stadium, told me last night.

“There’s going to be an issue with parking but a lot of the younger children’s parents will have left by then. The majority of the children running will do their races around 6.30pm, and hopefully that will free up some of the parking for the football crowd.”