THE national finals for the 2014 Jamaica Volleyball Phillip Greenland Development Championship, which was scheduled to start today at Independence Park, National Stadium has been moved to the Wolmer’s High School for Girls. The finals start tomorrow at 9:00 am.

According to Major Warrenton Dixon, schools’ development manager for the Jamaica Volleyball Association (JAVA), the cost of using the Stadium facility was beyond the reach of the association.

“I was informed by Independence Park Limited on Wednesday that they will be charging a fee of $50,000 to cover the administrative costs for the use of the facility at the Independence Park complex. The figure of $50,000 is far more than what I had budgeted for,” he said.

Dixon said the charge is usually $5,000. He added that because of the short notice and the lack of funds they were not able to find a suitable venue in time to host the championship today as originally planned.

“In the absence of any support, whatsoever, for the competition and while JaVA tries to recover its financial footing, I have personally spent over $200,000 to try to prevent the fallout of not having a competition.

“At this juncture, I am unable to absorb any more expense and as a result, I will not have the event at the National Stadium, however, it will take place at the Wolmers’ Girls on Saturday (tomorrow),” Dixon told the Jamaica Observer.

Dixon said cancelling the whole competition was not a part of his agenda.

“I regret the distress this latest development may cause, particularly for the 500 children who had qualified for the national finals. I actually had occasion to discuss cancellation of the national finals with parish coordinators in November because of the financial burden the competition was placing on me, but when I saw how well the children were playing, I made an extra push to reward them with the national finals,” he explained.