AFTER a four year hiatus, players and supporters of Harbour View FC will have to wait another few months before the Wray & Nephew Jamaica Premier League returns to the community. The reopening of the Harbour View Stadium has been pushed back until the 2024-25 season.

The “Stars of the East’s” last match at the stadium was in February 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic halted sports. After the easing of restrictions and approval from the Government, other clubs returned to their home venues.

However, Harbour View FC has not yet done so as management took the decision to renovate the stadium during the break.

General Manager Clyde Jureidini says their aim of reopening the stadium for this season was met with setbacks.

“We looked to renovate our stadium; and were trying to get it ahead of the deadline for the first week of January to be opened and approved with lights, with the field and with some modifications to the seating and other aspects of the stadium. But, as the reality of work goes, some of the things have started, some haven’t finished, and we couldn’t present it yet,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“We’re in the process of upgrading our overall lighting with LED and are trying to get it to international standards. We have 80 per cent finished with the field and we’ll be reopening for training. The seating for the first half of the stadium, some of the modifications are done and more in-depth repairs will take place between now and summer, based on what our projections and recommendations are.”

With no matches at the stadium, Harbour View has played home games at different venues in the Corporate Area, including Stadium East, Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex, and Sabina Park.

Jureidini says they are keen to return to their own stadium in short order due to the financial burden of renting other stadiums.

“It costs us more in the short run to have games away from Harbour View,” he said. “We have mitigated some of those costs and removed some of them. In the shortest time, once we’re satisfied on both fronts, we’ll continue to invest and reinvest in our football stadium [so] that we should be able to remove a lot of those costs — if not all of those costs — and start earning at home again by next season. We’ll have some events before that, that would push the needle in that direction, and then go bit by bit on a timely basis.”

Jureidini is hoping they can get outside funding to resume playing next season.

“We have been selling billboards and perimeter sign boards as we go there, and are looking at other modifications of equipment, electrical, and other facilities upgrading behind the scenes,” he said. “We’re doing it step by step; we’ve been spending millions of dollars on it and we’ll continue to do that. We have some potential investors and corporate sponsors who we have approached who, hopefully, will come on board, and hopefully we’ll have home games next season.”

Jureidini says while the stadium remains closed for top flight football, they will be hosting junior football tournaments in the coming months, including the Reggae Cup from March 2 to 3.