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Calabar Stadium: Eagles’ Slaughter SlabIt is not a smelly, blood stained building where animals are butchered, but has come to be known as the Slaughterhouse.
The serene atmosphere of the Udoakaha Jacob Esuene Sports Stadium located in the heart of Cross River State’s capital, Calabar, has been so christened by football lovers and supporters of the Nigerian national team, the Super Eagles, which has not lost a single game there in the past few years.
The grounds of the facility, simply referred to as the UJ Esuene Stadium, has in recent times served as the venue where the national team consistently beat their opponents, hence it has been termed, “The slaughterhouse of the Super Eagles.”
Built in 1976, the multi-purpose stadium has served as the home ground of the Calabar Rovers Football Club. After its commissioning in the same year, the first match was played there was between Calabar Rovers and Bendel Insurance.
A couple of weeks later, the stadium hosted an international encounter between Enugu Rangers and Tonnerre Yaoundé – a game that featured the likes of Roger Milla, Christian Chukwu and Emmanuel Okalla
Later upgraded to include an ultra-modern electronic video-matrix scoreboard, with powerful floodlights, the stadium has a capacity of about 12,000.
Since then the sporting arena has continued to attract various national and international sporting activities among which are the FIFA Under-21 World Cup in 1999 and the FIFA Under-17 in 2009.
At the moment preparations are in top gear for the sporting facility to host the 19th edition of the National Sports Festival in November this year.
So what is the magic of the Calabar Stadium? The Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, Mr Patrick Ugbe, says the thing special about it is the people.
“The magic is the people of this state and this city. You see, when you have an ambience of peace and security, you have an environment that is welcoming, when you have that kind of environment, you know all you can do is to excel because you are relaxed. You are not stressed. You are not bothered about other extraneous things that can distract your focus. So you are focussed on the task you have and you just excel. That is what Calabar does.
“That is why the national team has always excelled here. And because again when the national team is playing, you have over 10, 000 people in the stadium that are there to support them, not to criticise them or heckle them or boo them, but there to cheer them. It encourages them and gives them that boost. So the fans in Calabar act as the 12th player that encourages the team to always excel,” Ugbe said.
On how it got its peculiar nomenclature he said: “The people gave it that name. We didn’t give it the slaughter house of the Super Eagles. It came from the people themselves after seeing that, for several years, now, the team has not lost a match in this place and very significant that even outside the country, teams that come to Calabar to play the eagles now come with fear. They now see Calabar as the slaughter house. Nigeria never loses a match here, so they come to play with fear which again also helps psychologically to ensure victory for the team.
With the hosting of the sports festival almost upon them, Ugbe expressed confidence that the stadium, whose facilities are being upgraded as well as new ones added would be ready to give the country the best festival ever.
According to him: “We are sure it would be ready. The facilities that are being added apart from the main bowl and the tartan track that has been renovated and relayed with a brand new class one track, are the swimming pool that is being renovated to a ten lane Mitre Technology Pool. Also there is the basketball courts that are being redone and then for me among others. For me, the icing on the cake would be the multi-purpose ultra-modern indoor sports hall that is being constructed there. It is one design that has never been seen in this country. When it is completed, it is one that we would all be proud of as a people and as a state.
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