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di KAPTAIN....Him waan a big lick.
Millions of dollars were lost as a result of the last-minute decision by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) to change the kick-off time for Sunday's Reggae Boyz-Costa Rica matchup at the National Stadium.
That is the word from an irate Oliver McIntosh, CEO and president of cable subscriber television station, Sportsmax, the official broadcast-rights holder for Sunday night's friendly international.
McIntosh's woes stem from the 11th-hour decision to delay the start of the game for an hour, from its 6 p.m. start time, due a lack of spectator support inside the venue, 10 minutes before kick-off.
In what appeared to be a case of miscommunication, most spectators still believed the game would have started at 7 p.m.
After all, that was the time listed on match tickets that went on sale days before.
However, a request from the broadcaster to have kick-off forwarded an hour earlier, to facilitate prime-time programming - subsequent to the printing of the tickets - meant that the JFF had to move quickly to advise the public that there was a change in the match time.
However, at 5:45 pm on Sunday evening, only a sprinkle of spectators was seen inside the venue and, with the JFF's offices being bombarded with calls from confused spectators, who were anticipating a 7 pm start, a decision was taken to delay the match.
Irresponsible move
That delay meant that the broadcaster, who facilitated what was supposed to have been CVM Television's live coverage of the game, and was also responsible for beaming the feed to 25 countries, including Costa Rica, had to shell out millions of dollars for additional satellite time, and had to find more funds to pay overtime to production staff, among other unexpected expenses.
An obviously upset McIntosh described the entire situation as an irresponsible one and an act of disregard for the impact such a decision would have had on stakeholders.
"The only explanation that we could gather from the JFF was that they delayed the game because there weren't enough people in the stands," said McIntosh.
"Obviously, it has a monetary implication for us. from a cost standpoint, it's going to cost us millions of dollars."
Significant losses
McIntosh explained that with CVM Television pulling its live coverage, due to the fact that the delay would have carried the game into time dedicated for its news package, a lot of advertising revenue was immediately compromised. He also pointed out that broadcast partners across the region are also livid and will also have to incur significant losses themselves.
"We guaranteed live coverage, and it wasn't carried live on CVM, so now we will have to go back to our sponsors and work something out for them. Our broadcast partner in Costa Rica is also very upset, because the delaying of the match meant that it would have gone into their news hour, and they promised their sponsors a live game at 6 p.m., so they too have sponsors who are not very pleased right now, all because of an irresponsible decision."
The Sportsmax boss was not finished.
"I think that someone has to take a good look at the JFF and realise that this is not a small organisation. they have business partners who have a business interest in the Reggae Boyz," he said. "We have invested in hosts, analysts, production team, production unit, satellite transmission, we had to go and buy additional satellite time."
JFF president, Captain Horace Burrell, apologised for the implications, but maintained that the organisation acted in the best interest of spectators and that they did all they could to inform the public of the time change.
"The game was planned for 7 p.m. and, of course, the tickets were already printed and then we were told that for television purposes it (game) should be started at 6 p.m. instead," Burrell said.
"Ten minutes before that time we discovered that there was nobody inside the National Stadium, and several persons had been calling in to say that despite our many advertisements, they did not see them and that they were going by what was on their tickets.
"In all of this, our fans are most important and, therefore, I want to apologise if there were any inconveniences caused," Burrell stated.
Millions of dollars were lost as a result of the last-minute decision by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) to change the kick-off time for Sunday's Reggae Boyz-Costa Rica matchup at the National Stadium.
That is the word from an irate Oliver McIntosh, CEO and president of cable subscriber television station, Sportsmax, the official broadcast-rights holder for Sunday night's friendly international.
McIntosh's woes stem from the 11th-hour decision to delay the start of the game for an hour, from its 6 p.m. start time, due a lack of spectator support inside the venue, 10 minutes before kick-off.
In what appeared to be a case of miscommunication, most spectators still believed the game would have started at 7 p.m.
After all, that was the time listed on match tickets that went on sale days before.
However, a request from the broadcaster to have kick-off forwarded an hour earlier, to facilitate prime-time programming - subsequent to the printing of the tickets - meant that the JFF had to move quickly to advise the public that there was a change in the match time.
However, at 5:45 pm on Sunday evening, only a sprinkle of spectators was seen inside the venue and, with the JFF's offices being bombarded with calls from confused spectators, who were anticipating a 7 pm start, a decision was taken to delay the match.
Irresponsible move
That delay meant that the broadcaster, who facilitated what was supposed to have been CVM Television's live coverage of the game, and was also responsible for beaming the feed to 25 countries, including Costa Rica, had to shell out millions of dollars for additional satellite time, and had to find more funds to pay overtime to production staff, among other unexpected expenses.
An obviously upset McIntosh described the entire situation as an irresponsible one and an act of disregard for the impact such a decision would have had on stakeholders.
"The only explanation that we could gather from the JFF was that they delayed the game because there weren't enough people in the stands," said McIntosh.
"Obviously, it has a monetary implication for us. from a cost standpoint, it's going to cost us millions of dollars."
Significant losses
McIntosh explained that with CVM Television pulling its live coverage, due to the fact that the delay would have carried the game into time dedicated for its news package, a lot of advertising revenue was immediately compromised. He also pointed out that broadcast partners across the region are also livid and will also have to incur significant losses themselves.
"We guaranteed live coverage, and it wasn't carried live on CVM, so now we will have to go back to our sponsors and work something out for them. Our broadcast partner in Costa Rica is also very upset, because the delaying of the match meant that it would have gone into their news hour, and they promised their sponsors a live game at 6 p.m., so they too have sponsors who are not very pleased right now, all because of an irresponsible decision."
The Sportsmax boss was not finished.
"I think that someone has to take a good look at the JFF and realise that this is not a small organisation. they have business partners who have a business interest in the Reggae Boyz," he said. "We have invested in hosts, analysts, production team, production unit, satellite transmission, we had to go and buy additional satellite time."
JFF president, Captain Horace Burrell, apologised for the implications, but maintained that the organisation acted in the best interest of spectators and that they did all they could to inform the public of the time change.
"The game was planned for 7 p.m. and, of course, the tickets were already printed and then we were told that for television purposes it (game) should be started at 6 p.m. instead," Burrell said.
"Ten minutes before that time we discovered that there was nobody inside the National Stadium, and several persons had been calling in to say that despite our many advertisements, they did not see them and that they were going by what was on their tickets.
"In all of this, our fans are most important and, therefore, I want to apologise if there were any inconveniences caused," Burrell stated.
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