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Ticket sales for Champs going well – ISSA

Published:Sunday | April 3, 2022 | 12:11 AMRobert Bailey - Gleaner Writer

PRESIDENT OF the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) Keith Wellington says tickets for this year’s highly anticipated GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Championships have been going extremely well.

The five-day championships, from April 5-9, will see a maximum of 20,000 fans back in the stands, this after the last competition was held without spectators due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Three thousand five hundred grandstand seats will be open daily as well as 16,500 bleacher seats.

Wellington, who was unable to say the amount of the tickets that have been sold so far, told The Gleaner that his organisation would have a much better picture by tomorrow.

“It (ticket sales) have been going reasonably well, but it is hard to gauge because it is the first time that we have started selling tickets so soon,” said Wellington.

“However, I think that we will have a better picture after the end of this weekend as to what we would be likely to see in terms of crowd,” he said.

According to the St Elizabeth Technical High School principal and veteran sports administrator, all was in place for the start of the championships on Tuesday.

“The build-up has been good and the preparations have been falling into place and we are expected to be off to a smooth start because there is nothing in the way right now stopping us from having that on Tuesday,” he said.

STADIUM READY

General Manager of Independence Park Limited, Major Desmon Brown, says the National Stadium is ready to welcome large numbers of spectators to the facility.

“We have done as best as we can because we have put all the things in place for a successful championships,” said Major Brown.

“We have had the NWC (National Water Commission) to check our sewerage lines and so we are preparing for the event as best as we can,” he said.

“We will only have 70 per cent capacity for the championships and so we expect it (sewerage line) to manage it,” Major Brown said.

He also mentioned that his organisation had been doing some of the beautification work on the facility in time for the event.

“We have done some painting and some of the touching up that we normally do for Champs, and so I expect everything to go well,” said Major Brown.

robert.bailey@gleanerjm.com