Our business! - Business of JA's T&F - Penn Relays bounty

[MdmeX]

RUBBISH! This guy needs to go do some home work, what does the Penn Relays owe Jamaica????

Thank you Sickko - people them have their meet going since 1894.

[Karl]

Penn is an Ivy league school not a sports factory, you have to earn your way in..how many athletes do we have now that can QUALIFY for an Ivy league scholasrhip

Karl your thinking is typical of a lot of jamaicans looking for hand outs and bly

This must rank as one of your most stupidest post and trust me you have made many

...Sickko? ...read nuh, man?

The reason I suggested the scholarship be not 'encased' in narrow
student-athlete only offers were formed from thinking that suggests there may be years when academically qualified athletes could not e found...but there has never been a year when we have not had a hosts of other students well qualified to enter, not just US Ivy League Colleges, but the very best the World has to offer in institutions of higher learning.
In any case, we must leverage some of our strengths for Jamaica's good, not just narrow partisan interests.

[Sickko]

Penn is an Ivy league school not a sports factory, you have to earn your way in..how many athletes do we have now that can QUALIFY for an Ivy league scholasrhip

Karl your thinking is typical of a lot of jamaicans looking for hand outs and bly

This must rank as one of your most stupidest post and trust me you have made many

[Sickko]

RUBBISH! This guy needs to go do some home work, what does the Penn Relays owe Jamaica????

[Karl]

...but a sit-down with PENN organisers is long over due.
...what about some full scholarships to PENN, not limited to
student-athletes...but specially air-marked for JA High School students...also being a part of the mix?

[MdmeX]

They have a choice of attending or not attending. Did you read the comments posted.

Obviously the schools tha beg, borrow (maybe even steal) to attend every year, derive some benefit.

Penn Relays ain't gonna FOLD and DIE!!

[Karl]

Willi - Could it be your site had a hand in applying...

pressure here?

[Karl]

News
Penn Relays complaint
Diaspora chairman says event organisers need to give back to Jamaica
BY INGRID BROWN Observer senior reporter browni@jamaicaobserver.com
Friday, June 18, 2010

WITH Jamaicans accounting for more than half of the spectators at the yearly Penn Relays in Philadelphia, United States, one senior member of the Diaspora Advisory Board has chastised the organisers for not giving back to Jamaica anything from its sizeable earnings.

This year's event, which reportedly attracted some 117,000 fans over its three-day staging, also raked in considerable earnings to that city's coffers as hotels were fully booked, and restaurants and shops did thriving business.

Patrick Beckford, chair of the Jamaica Diaspora US North-East Region, speaking to editors and reporters at the inaugural Observer Press Club held at the newspaper's head offices in Kingston yesterday. (Photo: Michael Gordon)
According to Beckford, this year's event is estimated to have raked in close to US$5 million in profits, as the presence of Jamaican 100-metre world record holder Usain Bolt was a big draw.

"We benefit when we as a country recognise that Jamaica controls Penn, so how do we use it to benefit Jamaica, and that is where we have failed,"
St Elizabeth Technical’s Rochelle Farquharson competes in the triple jump at the Penn Relays in Pennslyvania, USA, on April 22, 2010. (Photo: Paul Reid)


Patrick Beckford, chair of the Jamaica Diaspora US North-East Region, speaking to editors and reporters at the inaugural Observer Press Club held at the newspaper's head offices in Kingston yesterday. (Photo: Michael Gordon)

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But while Jamaican athletes are the main crowd pullers at the event, Patrick Beckford, chair of the Jamaica Diaspora US North-East Region, said Jamaica and Jamaicans never benefit financially from the relays, although major fund-raising is done within the Diaspora and the Jamaican business community to offset the cost of getting the athletes there.



"Restaurants are full and you can't get a hotel room if you don't book early and everybody is there to see the Jamaican athletes, yet we do not benefit at all," he told editors and reporters at the inaugural Observer Press Club held at the newspaper's head offices in Kingston yesterday.


According to Beckford, gone are the days when the Penn Relays were the sole means of exposure for athletes hoping to secure scholarships at US universities.
"ISSA (Inter-Secondary School Sports Association) needs to sit with them (the organisers) and find a way how they can give back because they have given back locally," Beckford said.



http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/...plaint_7720432