by Elton Tucker, Assistant Sports Editor
Douglas Orane - File
The GraceKennedyBoys' and Girls Championships will have a theme song for the first time this year.
Hol' a Vibe, written by Wayne Armond, M. Stewart Gaynor and Wi Dis, will hit the airwaves soon as the signature tune for the prestigious March 12-15 championships.
In introducing the song at yesterday's official launch of the 2008 GraceKennedy Boys and Girls Championships at the Knutsford Court Hotel, Douglas Orane, chairman and chief executive officer of GraceKennedy, said it is a collaborated effort between associate sponsors CVM TV and his company.
"We hope it will serve to raise awareness in the schools, especially in those that are not usually in the winners' enclosure," Orane said.
According to Orane the song ... "will provide innumerable and ongoing opportunities to raise the profile of Champs and to provide a national recognition for this august event".
The budget for this year's meet is $18.3 million. In an interview with
Star Sports, championships committee chairman Clement Radcliffe, said security costs, which are likely to go past $4m, will take up a huge chunk of the budget.
The police will be deployed in large numbers at the four-day meet and Radcliffe said Inter-secondary Schools' Sports Association (ISSA) is responsible for their welfare.
"We do not pay them but we have to provide for their well-being while they are at the stadium," he said.
He added: "We are talking about a significant number of officers, the figure could reach up to 400 on Saturday. Then we have three security companies which we employ, and on the final day, they would have an average of more than 100 officers. So when we tally this in both counts, we expect to be spending over $4m for security," the Glenmuir High principal said.
With the budget already covered by a $15m sponsorship from GraceKennedy and associate sponsors CVM Group, Pepsi Cola and Cable and Wireless, Radcliffe expects to make a substantial profit this year. Some of the profit will be shared with the competing schools.
"I do not recall the overall profit last year ... but we shared in the region of between 10 and 11 million dollars in 2007 with the schools," Radcliffe said.
"The amount of money each school got would be dependent on the amount of points they received, the size of their delegations and the distance they travelled. Every school which participated got something," he added.
Entrance fees for the bleachers on the third day of the championship have been reduced. Radcliffe said this was done after an appeal from students.
"On Friday, the bleachers is populated primarily by students and they have been saying that it is difficult for them to spend $500 on Friday and $700 on Saturday. So we have reduced it to $350 and we are also giving them a concessionary rate for Saturday. All the other fees remain the same as last year.
The prices of tickets are: Season: $2,200. Wednesday and Thursday: Adult $200, children $50. Friday: grandstand $1,100, bleachers $350. Saturday: grandstand $1,500, bleachers $700.
More than 2,400 athletes from 76 girls and 87 boys teams are expected to compete at this year's meet.
Also speaking at yesterday's press launch were Dr Walton Small, president of ISSA, and Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association President Howard Aris.
Cable and Wireless, Pepsi Cola Jamaica Limited and the CVM Group are associate sponsors of the meet.
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