MONTEGO BAY, St James - Captain Horace Burrell is not pleased with the turnout at last Wednesday's CONCACAF World Cup qualifying game against the Bahamas at the Trelawny Multi-Purpose Stadium in Florence Hall.

The Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) boss, who a month ago said they would not play anymore games at the venue if it was not filled to capacity for the Reggae Boyz return-leg match, stopped just short of pulling the plug on the Trelawny facility.

Jamaican defender Tyrone Marshall (foreground) makes a defensive pass ahead of Cameron Hepple of the Bahamas during their World Cup qualifying match at the Trelawny Multi-purpose Stadium last Wednesday. The Reggae Boyz won 6-0. (Photo: Paul Reid)

He said while there were other problems associated with the staging of last week's game, his biggest disappointment was the poor attendance.

"I wanted to see that place filled to capacity," a candid JFF boss said, quickly adding, however, that the staging of the game "was a very good start and I won't beat you up about that".

He did point out, however, that the 2,000 bleachers tickets priced at $500 were sold out in a matter of hours, while based on the figures they had up to the time, less than half of the other tickets ranging from $2,500 to $3,000 were sold.

Burrell was addressing last Saturday's press launch of the Linkz FM pre-season schoolboy 20/20 football fiesta at the Pelican Restaurant.

There is still uncertainty as to whether the multi-purpose stadium would host international games in the near future, following criticisms of the field by technical director Rene Simoes and captain Ricardo Gardner after Wednesday's 6-0 thrashing of the Bahamas.

The venue became the fourth to stage an international football match here and the latest in western Jamaica since Jarrett Park, which staged several games in the Caribbean Football Union Championships in 2004.

Burrell said the cost of staging matches "is very, very high and patrons must be prepared to support this endeavour by paying a little bit more".

He argued that when matches are played in Kingston, patrons pay to travel there and also to provide refreshments, so it works out the same.

The CFU senior vice-president said because he has "a particular interest in football in these parts to see the resurgence of the game, western Jamaica will not be left out in the dark".

The second-time JFF boss reiterated his disappointment that come next season when the National Premier League (NPL) kicks off, there won't be any teams from St James, following Seba United's demotion last season and Wadadah's failure to qualify from the play-offs.

"In trying to raise the level of awareness in national football and to build back the football product and the football vibes here in western Jamaica, we're going to... be doing a lot," Burrell said.

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