3 months ago
18
Thursday evening at Sabina Park was expected to mark the start of what is expected to be an exciting Jamaica Premier League (JPL) play-off stage. However, the night was marred by a failure of the floodlights at the venue.
The quarterfinal between Tivoli Gardens and Montego Bay was called off after 35 minutes and the game between Cavalier and Portmore was postponed.
CEO of the Professional Football Jamaica Limited (PFJL), Owen Hill, said no effort was spared to get the lights back up for the games, but that after thorough consultation with all parties it was decided that the best solution was to move the games to yesterday.
Hill, however, assured that Sabina Park, which has become the premier venue for the play-off stage of the JPL in the past three years, will be primed and ready for the second leg of the quarterfinals come Monday.
“Yes, things will be ready for Monday. We are putting the necessary work in place to ensure that we don’t have a recurrence. The team from one of our partners, KemTek Development and Construction, will be there to assist with electricians and engineers. Plus the Sabina Park team are also doing their work. So all things being equal, Monday should be good, because we had some early discussions and those were the assurances provided,” he said.
Should the lights at Sabina Park fail to be ready for Monday’s second leg, Hill said they would move to either the National Stadium or Stadium East.
CONTINGENCIES IN PLACE
“We definitely have some contingencies in place. Normally, match day minus one, we go through all routine checks. From a lighting perspective, making sure those things are in place, and also from an infrastructure perspective. Sabina Park is the number one option but there are other options in and around Kingston, like National Stadium and Stadium East,” he said.
According to HIll, the PFJL lost more than $10 million in revenue due to Thursday’s problem with the floodlights. He believes that the only way to prevent a future occurrence is to improve the general infrastructure at the current premier venues and increase the amount of quality venues available.
“Financially, we lost millions. We lost above $10 million because of unrealised revenue through ticketing. Clubs also would have been affected. A club like Montego Bay had to travel far and fans who showed up wanting to have an experience, they were left in limbo because of a lack of information because we didn’t have that much information to give in that moment. The sponsors who were part of the execution would have been affected because they also had plans. So what you found in the end, was that football ultimately had a setback.
“We need better infrastructure, specific sporting infrastructure, so that we can always rectify situations quickly or we do not have issues along these lines. We need a comprehensive set of stadiums around so we don’t have to depend on one or two that currently exist. If we had more, it would be better. We have a shortage of quality venues and we just always have to be on the same page in execution. We want to make sure we execute and improve the overall product, and we are ensuring that we have all the relevant meetings, stakeholder discussions and systems in order to not have a recurrence of what transpired last (Thursday) night.”
English (US) ·