‘Fill the Office’
Glenn Mills hopes big crowd rings in Racers Grand Prix restart
Published:Wednesday | May 17, 2023 | 12:15 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staf Reporter
WITH TICKETS now available for the Racers Grand Prix, meet director and Racer’s Track Club Chairman Glen Mills is imploring Jamaicans to back its return with a packed National Stadium as the event looks to meet its financial obligations.
Tickets for the meet, slated for June 3, went on sale on Sunday and according to Mills, there has been a steady uptake for the first Grand Prix since the COVID-19 pandemic forced its cancellation in 2019.
Noting that there is still a significant deficit to make up to meeting its budget, Mills is banking on a packed crowd to fill the stands in order to close the gap.
“Yesterday (Monday) was far more active and I guess once we get the message out, we expect hopefully will have an outpouring and a demand for more,” Mills told The Gleaner.
“Right now we are sitting on a significant deficit and we are appealing to the sports-loving public to come out and support us. So we hope that the gate receipts will go a far way to bridge that gap. We are hoping we can have a full grandstand and 15,000 in the bleachers. It will go a far way to propelling us to close the gap.”
Noting that the average cost of a meet of this size could climb to US$1 million (J$154,730,000), Mills said that the deficit is about one-third of that average budget (J$46,419,000) but Mills is hoping that the injection of some interested parties three weeks before the meet will help to close that deficit as well.
“We have a few late enquiries and we hope that it will bear fruit,” Mills said.
A strong cast of stars have already been confirmed for the meet such as world 200m men’s champion, Noah Lyles, World 100m hurdles champion and world record holder Tobi Amusan, World 200m women’s champion Shericka Jackson, as well as former World and Olympic 400m champion Wayde Van Niekerk.
What will also be on display is the new technology for the jumps which was tested during the Velocity Fest meet weeks ago. Mills has also made assurances that nagging issues in past meets will not be repeated in order to meet the high standards that they have enjoyed.
“I understand that the problem has been resolved and the system is working perfectly. They have put other things in place to ensure that we have a smooth operation. So I am not worried. I am confident that we will not have a problem,” Mills said.
“All the four stagings we have done, have gone at a high level. In 2017 the president of World Athletics was in attendance and was amazed by how the meet was run. We have really upgraded with the new equipment that World Class Athletics acquired. And we are confident that we will have an excellent meet.”
Tickets are available at The Jamaica Pegasus as well as online at racersgrandprix.com and mysticonlinetix.com.