Frustrated by "constant bickering" and the National Sports Centre (NSC) being a "political football", three NSC trustees have quit.

Chairman Donald Lines, his deputy Charles Marshall (the former Bermuda Football Association president) and David Brown all declined reappointment to the Board of Trustees at the end of May.

"Yes that's true. The renewal of my appointment was of May 31 so I advised the (then) minister Randy Horton that I had had ten years and I thought it was time to step down and I resigned effectively the end of May," said Lines, confirming the end of his tenure to The Royal Gazette.

In the wake of these departures, Dr. Gerard Bean is the new board chairman while Shaun Tucker has also been named a new trustee.

Alluding to repeated controversies over how the Frog Lane stadium is being utilised and over payment for its use, Lines said he and his colleagues felt it more prudent for Government to tackle such issues head-on rather than leaving that headache to trustees.

"I worked well with Randy Horton but there is a problem dealing with BFA and who is going to get use of the stadium and who is going to pay for the use of it.

"We just felt it's easier for the Government to decide themselves how to deal with it rather than to have us in the middle which is where we ended up. I was tired of the constant bickering."

Asked if Marshall and Brown were of like thinking, he replied: "We all had the same view."

Marshall concurred noting that Government "wanted us to do things but would never let us get on to do them without all sorts of obstacles in our way". This, he added meant "the role of the trustees was no longer as it was in the Act" establishing the NSC and the trustees' mandate.

"Government, through the Ministry of Sports, was taking more and more control of the whole thing and making commitments that we were totally unaware of.

"At the end you say to yourself `What's the point of having trustees anymore?'. Life is too short to have a lot of sleepless nights over something that's totally out of your control. I certainly am disappointed because I would have liked to see the NSC completed," said Marshall.

Saying "we did our best", Lines explained the trustees felt "somewhat constrained as to what we could make decisions about" particularly regarding the sports bodies' demands to use the facility free or for low fees.

"We never knew whether they (Government) promised them (the sports organisations) things we didn't know about . . . so it's just easier if they dealt with it themselves.

"It's all sort of amusing . When we were building the stadium fields, the cricket people didn't want to use it and the BFA said it was too expensive but now it's finished everybody wants to use it and they want to fight over who is going to get it and most of them don't want to pay for it either. It's a silly situation.

"After ten years of work I feel I did what I could. We built a lot of things at a very reasonable price. The pavilion and northern field are to be completed. That was approved by the previous Progressive Labour Party (PLP) administration. Where they are going to go now I don't know.

"It would be nice to know it could be completed but it's going to be a political football so I feel it's easier for us to let the politicians kick it themselves," said the former chairman.

Describing the opportunity to work on the NSC as "a wonderful experience", Marshall too expressed optimism that the multi-sport arena would be finished in its entirety.

"It will be a great asset if we can complete it, not just for sports (but) for the whole of Bermuda," he noted.

Lines disclosed that Government had approved the trustees' borrowing funds to complete the pavilion and the artificial-turf field to the west of the grandstand. However, they did not start that phase of development "because there was no indication how they (Government) were going to repay the debt".

"They have a whole lot of issues and I think the budget was getting a bit strained so I wasn't about to stick my name on something which I didn't think could be financed."

As for the NSC's future, Lines termed it "unrealistic" to think the stadium can be run without charging fees.

"Somebody has to maintain the fields, all that equipment and all the buildings. It costs money to maintain. If you were a golfer you would expect to pay for use of a course and the same thing is true for every other sport.

"The sporting organisations are in many cases mismanaged but also essentially have no funds. The question is who is going to pay and who gets what for free. Government is going to have to make up their mind."