Champs approved for 15,000 fans
Published:Sunday | March 13, 2022 | 12:13 AMRobert Bailey - Gleaner Writer
THE GOVERNMENT has granted permission to the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) for 15,000 spectators to attend this year’s staging of the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships at the National Stadium.
The highly anticipated Champs, which pits the nation’s top high schools against each other the course of five days of competition, will be held from April 5-9.
After the 2020 edition was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Champs returned last year, but with the quiet of no fans in the stands.
Keith Wellington, president of ISSA, said his organisation was very happy to have been granted permission for fans to attend this year’s championships because the allocation should make the event all the more exciting.
“I think that is a reasonable amount under the circumstances and so if we can get 15,000 for each day, then certainly that will be good for us,” said Wellington.
“But normally only on Friday and Saturday will we have more turnout than that amount at the National Stadium for Champs,” he said.
Wellington added that tickets for Champs are scheduled to go on sale after March 21 and that persons must register on ISSA’s website to have their vaccinated status ratified in order to purchase.
According to Wellington, much work had gone into ensuring that this year’s championships was very successful.
FINANCIAL HIT
The need to ensure success has come out of the financial hit ISSA took at last year’s championships with no spectators in attendance.
“Having fans back will help us, not just in terms of Champs itself, but all the other sports that we are responsible for, because everyone knows that we use the proceeds from Champs to fund many of the other sports that we administrate,” he said.
“Things are falling into place each day and we are really looking forward to having spectators inside the National Stadium for more than one reason,” said Wellington. “Champs is not the same without the atmosphere of fans in the stands.”
Jamaica College and Edwin Allen High School won the boys’ and girls’ titles in 2021, respectively.