Michael Fennell, head of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the CARIFTA Games, is expressing confidence Amber Innovations will remedy its glitchy ticketing system in time for the regional sporting showcase being held in Kingston, Jamaica.

Fennell, speaking with Our Today on Tuesday (March 1) after a meeting with the ministries of health and local government yesterday evening, acknowledged the logistical nightmare at the Gibson McCook Relays last Saturday. 

“We had a meeting with the Minister [of Local Government] last night and with various entities that fall under his control like ODPEM, KSAMC, the Ministry of Health and others, and we clarified a number of issues with regards to that,” Fennell disclosed.

“We did experience some difficulty with the Amber system for the Gibson Relays and I think that will be clarified for whatever system we use for CARIFTA. I just want to say that we know there were some concerns with the Gibson Relays and we know it was the first time, but the meeting that we had was extremely positive in terms of finding solutions,” he added.

Fennell dismissed suggestions that the CARIFTA LOC was being “mandated” to work with Amber Innovations’ ticketing system. He conceded, however, that as head of the CARIFTA committee he is not in direct contact with Amber Group.

“Amber [Group] is contracted by the Government of Jamaica and there are various agencies that use them for certain things, but, as far as the CARIFTA Games are concerned, we have not been told that is compulsory,” Fennell told Our Today.

“We have no direct contact with Amber; this is something that we experienced purely as an independent individual trying to access Amber [last weekend] and with others involved in it. But, there was some difficulty with the Gibson Relay tickets,” the CARIFTA LOC head indicated further.

Seemingly not leaving the glitch to chance, Fennell told Our Today that CARIFTA will also be liaising with the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) for possible utilisation of the ticketing system used at the annual Boys and Girls Athletic Championships (Champs), despite Government assurances Amber’s system issues would be resolved for the April 16-18 event. 

The former Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) president did not confirm or deny that ISSA’s ticketing system would be used as a back-up or in tandem with Amber Innovations.

The LOC head also declined to list the “issues”, if any, that were raised during yesterday’s meeting.

“I can’t speak to that. I know they [ISSA] have a system that they will be using and we’ll be liaising with them and the ministry to see what will be the best solution for the CARIFTA Games,” Fennell told the Our Today newsroom.

Only fully vaccinated spectators would be granted entry into the National Stadium during the CARIFTA Games, with Fennell being unable to comment on the estimated attendance limit, as that was not examined in the February 28 meeting.

“Vaccination will be required, there’s no question about that. No figures were discussed. We discussed the principles of ‘opening up’ and we looked at a variety of things but we are yet to sign off on the number of spectators. Certainly, as you would have seen in other areas, there’s been a relaxing of the tight rules for spectators and we just have look at what percentage of [full] capacity at the [National] Stadium could be used for that,” Fennel said.

Managing director of Amber Group, Michael McNaughton, in an interview with Nationwide News earlier today, said that ticket sales for the Gibson Relays went live around Wednesday afternoon last week. 

Continuing, McNaughton seemed to suggest that a two-day threshold to submit and verify a multitude of vaccination certificates was perhaps not ideal. 

The revelation from the Amber Group exec comes as the company is directly responsible for collecting and processing Jamaicans’ personal data in the to-be-discontinued JAMCOVID platform.

“A two-day window is short for persons to submit their vaccination certificate for that approval to get back to them, for them to turn around and buy tickets,” McNaughton argued.

“It’s unfortunate that it went down to the wire, but two days is actually a very short period. The same system was used for the World Cup qualifier at the [National] Stadium and they had a lot more time than two or three days, and 4,000 patrons were able to purchase tickets,” the senior executive said.

According to McNaughton, the Amber Innovations system successfully processed 235 invited guests, 80 support staff, 633 athletes, 380 volunteers and 800 spectators for the 2022 Gibson McCook Relays.

The 800-spectator total is well over 90 per cent less than the 8,400 potential ticket sales earmarked for the event, which McNaughton also confirmed would have been spread across Grandstands as well as north, central and south sections of the Bleachers seats at the National Stadium. 

Professor Renford Wilks, chairman of the Gibson McCook Relays, contested the Amber exec’s account of the mishap, when he stated that tickets were officially opened by 11:00 am last Tuesday. 

Wilks added that the organising team was contacted by the Local Government Ministry on February 2. During that conversation, he said the organisers were told explicitly that despite having a good relationship with their usual ticket provider, Gibson Relay officials were mandated to work with Amber Innovations. 

“We were summoned and told that we had to go into a relationship with Amber [Group] because they had the advantage of access to the database of vaccinated persons,” Professor Wilks disclosed.

“We were also told that time would not allow for them (Amber) to interface with our ticket provider. It turned out that wasn’t so because vaccination certification was being done manually. That, in fact, later contributed to the delay in approval and so, that ‘advantage’ did not exist,” he added.