Sporting struggle to keep vision alive
CLARENDON PARK, Clarendon — Brandon Murray, co-founder and president of Digicel Premier League (DPL) team Sporting Central Academy, painfully confessed that the process of transforming the club into an actual football academy is much harder than he initially thought.
And with Jamaica’s business community still trying to grapple with the effects of the global financial meltdown, Murray suspects things will get even harder for upcoming sporting associations like his to acquire financial support.
“We anticipated more help from the business community, but we’re aware of the fact that as far as the economy is concerned, people talk about the recession and people are being very cautious and reserved,” he said.
“People are not into a spending mode even today, and this has been going on for over a year now, so we understand the situation, but we really had expected more support from the business community.”
For now, the short-term vision for Murray and company is to find creative means of balancing the club’s faltering account books.
“We must have increased revenue stream and we think the best opportunity for that… is to come from the players… we’re short of revenue and… we have to find creative ways to get that revenue…,” said Murray.
Sporting Central, the brainchild of Murray and former national player Christopher Dawes, was hatched in 2002 with a clear aim of returning a team from Clarendon to the National Premier League.
But, with the club enjoying much success in the parish competitions and the South Central Confederation Super League, the vision would soon blossom into more than just a football club trying to reach the nation’s top football league.
They now wanted to recruit central Jamaica’s brightest young talents with the aim of preparing them for the export market. Attached to this vision was also a need to develop a facility — an academy of sorts that would rival the world’s best.
But while they’ve been able to successfully create one of the best playing surfaces in the island at Brancourt, the broader vision of a full-fledge academy is still a far way from complete, with funding being their nemesis.
The former Munro College and St George’s College schoolboy footballer said with Jamaica as a small nation proving that it can compete with the world’s best, it’s even more confusing to him why more corporate entities are not pumping money into sports development.
“I think too reluctant… we really anticipated some more help,” Murray said of their efforts to get sponsorship.
“Right now it’s a very difficult situation because aside from the sponsorships that we get from Digicel through the Premier League Clubs Association (PLCA), we’re finding it very hard to get that kind of help. We need more Digicels.”
But, Murray, who is from a business-minded family, has not given up hope. He is determined to see it through, even in the toughest of times.
He said: “This doesn’t mean we’re going to stop trying. We’re going to continue to see if we can get more people on board, but I think we really have to get our product out there, which is the players, the brand of football that we play.”
He has been using Brancourt Sports (a sports marketing company from which Sporting Central was conceived) as the main income venture to cover the daily cost of running the Premier League club. And as he explained, it is this effort that is keeping the bleeding Sporting Central team afloat.
“The effort of Brancourt Sports in terms of our sports marketing is what helps to run the club, mostly the development of fields.
“We do work for SDF (Sports Development Foundation) and private projects, but the whole effort of Brancourt Sports at this point in time is the revenue stream for Sporting Central,” the former Tulsa Roughnecks player said.
But, not even this enterprise has been able to stop Sporting’s cash flow problem.
“When you can’t pay your players on time… when you can’t pay your players for one, two months and have additional expenses… you have the programme to run, we have a players’ residence, gas, food; it’s not been easy”, Murray lamented.
Hence, the former Real Mona player told the Observer stakeholders at the club (including players, coaches) have realised if things are to take a positive turn, they will have to start marketing the players, which includes acquiring overseas contracts.
“We have a financial shortfall, so right now in our players’ minds they have to be thinking way beyond Sporting Central. We have to play that brand of football that is going to attract people to the club to say ‘I want this player to play for me at a higher level’ so that the player can move and the club benefit,” he reasoned.
Sporting, who are in their third season of Premier League football, are eighth with 30 points — 21 off the co-leaders Tivoli Gardens and Harbour View — and just three points above the relegation zone.
They are on a five-match winless streak, having suffered a humiliating 0-4 loss to the defending champions Tivoli Gardens at home on Sunday, which further exposed them to the harsh reality of relegation.
Murray, who attended Erskine College in the United States on a football scholarship, admitted that an improved performance from the team could also help their cause.
“We realise that we have to prove our worth… develop some kind of value before people would invest and buy into it. If we’re not of any value, then we’re not going to attract any kind of business interest,” Murray explained.