Bennett: Good Championship, Major League can still improve

PRESIDENT OF the Kingston and St Andrew Football Association (KSAFA), Mark Bennett, said despite what he calls hugely successful Championship and Major League seasons, which culminated with both finals at the Anthony Spaulding Complex on Sunday, there is room for improvement.

Still, Bennett thought the competitions’ social media presence, Friday night feature games, and fan and community engagement made for a satisfactory season for the organisation.

“We did a lot of things with the social media last season and we decided to ‘up it up’ (this season). We got two young interns from UTech (University of Technology). One had experience with social media, Rohan Fraser. The other person left for greener pastures but Rohan took it on and has been doing well. He has been managing our Facebook and Instagram pages and has been turning out information with some nice graphics and videos and I can tell you, he has increased the reach of the association,” he said.

“When you looked at the matrix, you could see people were viewing the content. So we are going in the right direction and we want to build on that.”

Friday night games

The weekly Friday night games at Constant Spring have also been a great boost for the league, and it was no surprise to Bennett to see the massive turnout on Sunday at the finals in Arnett Gardens.

“We always saw the Friday night games as a means of bringing out people to a central venue that was comfortable, and there you saw the attendance start to build on the Friday nights.

“Then when we moved into the semifinals, which was back-to-back semifinals on a Friday and a Saturday night, the venue was filled to capacity.

“So we always knew the final would be very much the same thing, based on the level of promotion that was taking place, which was the promotion of the teams and the players, as opposed to the past when people would look at coaches and administrators.

“Also, we did some work with the clubs in their communities to reconnect with their base. So we were always confident the finals would turn out like that in terms of support.

“And on the field of play, the quality was very good. So our sponsors are very happy and are promising bigger and better things for the new season.”

He added that KSAFA will do a review of the season and look at how to make improvements, though there are already areas that have been identified.

“There is always room for improvement and one of the things we want to do is work with the clubs in terms of building their fan engagement strategy.

“But we will now settle down and review the season and see where mistakes were made and identify our weaknesses and see where we can make the adjustments as we go forward.

“We also hope to get the support of our affiliates. They have seen the work we have done and we hope they will give us the mandate to carry on for another four years,” he added.

In the Championship final on Sunday, Boys’ Town defeated the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) 6-5 on penalties after playing to a 2-2 draw.

The Major League trophy went to August Town after they came from a goal down to edge Duhaney Park.