– Claims lost $M of revenue for closing stadium gates

Director of the Kashif and Shanghai Organisation, Kashif Muhammad, said yesterday that the decision by members of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to prevent spectators from entering the Providence National Stadium during the New Year’s Day final between Alpha United and eventual winners Western Tigers has cost the organization millions of dollars.

Thousands of persons were locked out after the police ruled that the venue could not accommodate more persons.

According to Muhammad, ranks under the supervision of ‘A’ Division Commander George Vyphius were paid to provide protection in addition to the organisation’s own private security.

Muhammad said that at the time of the incident, which occurred  at around 21:30 hours, the GPF was informed that the move to halt the sale of tickets was not wise since there was available  seating in all the other stands except that of the Red Stand which was filled to capacity.

“But these guys just went ahead and did their own thing and not listen to us because the firemen who were doing an excellent job at monitoring the crowd they had already told us about the areas they were monitoring closely, like the same Red Stand you know, so the police acted way out of jurisdiction, it was not their job,” Muhammad told Stabroek Sport.

In an attempt to gain entry into the venue, ticket and non-ticket holders stormed the gate and ripped down the chain link fence at the Stadium.

Muhammad said the actions by the crowd have forced his organization to absorb a significant financial loss at a time when the expenses associated with the staging of this year’s event have been the highest in the tournament’s history.
“At that time, when we checked with the people from the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) at the ticketing area, a count of about 8,500 persons were in the stadium at the time which also included VIPs and complementary. So the stadium holds about 16,000 maximum at 1500 a head so you could see our loss,” Muhammad noted.

“So, what we are wondering is who will make up for all that money lost because you could do the math, when we argued with the police that their actions to lock the gate could cause plenty problems, they didn’t even listen to us.

“We were saying to them that one stand was filled and they took the position that until the standees in that particular stand were removed to other stands no one else would be allowed to enter the stadium.

“We worked with the fire service and sorted that out and they still insisted on keeping the gate closed. The fire service again, I’ll make it known, was there and they did not say anything. Last year it was the same thing but we had a well run system.”

Muhammad said his organization was set to have talks with the police on the issue.

Vyphius could not be contacted up to press time for a comment.