ANTIGUA ATHLETIC CLUB CALLS IT QUITS, CITING EFFECTS OF PANDEMIC & EXTENDED CLOSURE AS REASONS FOR CLOSING ITS DOORS
One week after the Dixie Call Centre declared that it is ceasing operations in Antigua and Barbuda, another business is announcing that it will close its doors next week.
The Antigua Athletic Club, which was originally owned by disgraced investor R. Allen Stanford, will go out of business on April 30.
In a letter to staff dated April 16, 2021, the General Manager of the establishment, Gisele Maginley, said the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic put a strain on operations.
She alsocited the extended closure of the Athletic Club – due to a Cabinet decisionthat has kept gyms shuttered – as another reason for management’s inabilityto sustain the business.
Maginley thanked the staff for their support over the past 10 years of the Club’s operations, and noted, in particular, its facilitation of a swim programme for children.
Meanwhile, sources say that, even before the pandemic, the Club was on borrowed time.
They say that Cricket West Indies, which now owns and operates the former Stanford Cricket Ground, has had its eye on the gym facilities and the pool of the Athletic Club for quite a while, since the acquisition would “complete the package.”
The pandemic has directly and indirectly caused a number of local companies to collapse. Social Security indicated, last year, that over 900 businesses had closed since March 2020, when the pandemic first hit our shores.
