Shadow Sports Minister Cole Simons said he would be "ecstatic" if he was able to find out what the final cost of Bermuda's showpiece National Sports Centre will be.

The United Bermuda Party MP hit out at his opposite number Randy Horton following the Minister's speech to the annual Sports Conference at the weekend.

Horton told those gathered at Bermuda College that finishing the Frog Lane venue within Government cash constraints was "an onerous task".

"The challenge that Government faces ... is finding the required financial resources to complete the remaining elements and, to this end, Government has initiated a full review of all construction expenditure at the Sports Centre to date so that we can examine and chart the way towards completion," he said.

The Minister went on to challenge the Centre's board of trustees to "examine ways in which we can attract finances to complete the remaining phases without incurring Government debt that will have a negative impact on our debt ceiling".

Simons said his interpretation of the speech was that Government had found itself in a position where it was unable to find the money to complete the project on its own - if true this was "reprehensible" he said.

"I believe sport should be an integral part of public policy and ought to have resources it needs and deserves. I believe Bermuda should be serious about raising the level of sports, showcasing the best of Bermuda's athletes and attracting to Bermuda the best athletes from around the world," he said.

"And therefore I believe that the National Sports Centre needs to be completed in the quickest possible time and that the economic mismanagement that has led the PLP Government to run out of money for the project is shameful."

Simons said when he heard Horton's speech on Saturday he was "stunned".

"In December I read that the stadium would be complete by December 31, or most of it at least," he said. "I didn't think that they had turned off the tap from a Government funding point of view.

"To hear this caught me totally off guard because I was not expecting this at all."

Simons said the UBP were reviewing the statements made at the Sports Conference and would be coming out with their response within the next two weeks.

"The PLP's 1998 manifesto says that a PLP Government will 'place a high priority on the completion of the National Stadium Complex'," the MP said.

"Four years later the PLP Minister of Youth and Sport is marching to a different drum. He does not expect the Centre to be completed anytime soon. Further, the Minister said that he is challenging the National Sports Centre Trustees to examine creative ways to raise capital to finish the project. Once again the Government expects the private sector to bail them out of their commitments."