In 1992, 22 First Division football clubs in England broke away from the English Football League to form the Premier League which has since been hugely successful financially, drawing the envy of the other top leagues in Europe. Nearly 30 years after, Jamaica has embarked on its own journey to creating a more commercially viable football league. While the commercialisation of the league is based on the English model, there is no expectation that it will match the Premier League. However, the dream is that Jamaica will have a professional football league that will be among the best in the region. But, what are the plans so far? How have they been realised? What hurdles stand in the way and how will they be overcome. The Business Observer looks at the business side of football in Jamaica as part of this weeks Business Observer Special Report.

PROFESSIONAL Football Jamaica Limited (PFJL) began managing the Jamaica Premier League in 2020, with its focus being the commercialisation and marketing of professional football in the country. On top of the difficulties of pursuing its objectives in a financially challenged local football ecosystem, the organisation began its stewardship of the league as the island and the world were being blindsided by the COVID-19 global health crisis.

Three years later, despite the obstacles, a marketable football product is taking shape to spur and accelerate the growth, not just of the league but the wider football industry.

Christopher Williams, chairman of PFJL, doubles down on this point.

“We start from an objective of building a professional football industry,” he emphasised,”we don’t start from an objective of building a league. We want to make that distinction. We are the Professional Football Jamaica Limited; we’re not Jamaica Premier League. Most people see the Jamaica Premier League as the start and end of the professional football industry — and that in and of itself is not viable in building an industry.”

And so the PFJL has taken a multifaceted approach to creating a league that adds value to the entire industry through the development of players of all ages, the improved marketability of Jamaican players overseas, greater international visibility of Jamaican football, and more opportunities for investment.

“We want to do horizontal and vertical extensions,” Williams explained. “Horizontal extensions are more brands to achieve a wider spacing of the business model. Vertical are more streams of income for each brand.”

The brands include the 14-team league competition, a 14-team knockout competition currently known as the Link Cup, preseason matchups, and a champions tour of North America by the winning team.

Additionally, PFJL intends to create a winter league that marries football with tourism, creating a two-week window in which foreign teams visit the island to play Jamaican teams. Other planned projects involve under-17, under-15 and under-13 elite leagues as well as a business community league and an over-40 league.

The organisation is working to improve the revenue streams of its brands in the areas of broadcasting, sponsorship, merchandising, player sales, betting and gate receipts.

Multiple brands mean increased revenue streams, particularly through sponsorship and broadcasting.

“The big boys in the world of sponsorship want titles,” Williams emphasised,”so we couldn’t depend on one tournament because that’s just one title, and the big boys want titles. So, we had to develop multiple tournaments for the professional teams so that the sponsors could get their day in the sun.”

The league has a presenting sponsor or title sponsor, which is currently Digicel. There are three league sponsors, namely Proven, Mount Pleasant Football Academy, and Supreme Ventures through JustBet.

Then there are club sponsorships, with the primary sponsorship seen at the front of the shirt for each club. Opportunities also exist for associate sponsors wherein specific companies and brands can be involved in niche areas.

PFJL CEO Owen Hill echoed Williams’ views on building out football products/brands and working to provide increased value for sponsors. They are grateful for the current sponsorship but are hungry for more.

“As we grow, as we build the product and we are showing the value proposition, then you will find more and more sponsors wanting to be on board,” Hill assured. “We keep finding ways to penetrate. Obviously, there are certain clubs that attract more sponsorship than others because of their brand value but as we go, we’re trying to build everybody and ensure that there is at least a minimum standard across all the clubs. So, we keep asking and showing that there’s value and saying ‘Yes, let’s partner.’ We have different hierarchies in our sponsorship tiers but at the same time we will never turn back somebody, because we know how important it is that the value is provided to everybody who decides that they’re going to be a part of it.”

Broadcast Rights

Broadcasting initiatives are also bolstering the league’s visibility.

“We’re talking about over 50,000 views on any given match,” Hill revealed.

He further specified that viewership is split approximately 75 per cent overseas and 25 per cent local. A broadcast deal with partner SportsMax carries four out of seven games weekly across the Caribbean, while games are also broadcast free-to-air, live and delayed on CVM Television. The league’s YouTube channel targets a global audience on the Internet.

At the moment the Jamaica Premier League earns a nominal fee from broadcast rights but the priority at this stage of development is to establish the product with audiences.

“The investment side of what we get is way greater than what the earnings are,” Hill stressed. “That investment is really just ensuring that the games are produced, first, at the highest quality. Building markets really come from one having the actual product being able to be distributed…so the look and the feel of it, the kind of commentary, the kind of distribution channels that exist, those are things that we were very clear on. So any deal that was struck was decided on how we can build the infrastructure to the point where it is stress-tested and foolproof, and then we can start earning more than what we’re currently getting from rights fees.”

Williams expanded on the unfolding broadcast blueprint that first began with establishing access to markets.

“Prior to the PFJL the professional football space would have to buy airtime in order to get coverage,” the chairman pointed out. “Now we are actually paid for the rights to air it so that has been a massive turn in fortunes.”

“We are going back to the drawing board to see how we can [further] monetise,” he continued. “Do we monetise through our YouTube channel? Do we monetise through a revenue share arrangement on streaming or cable? Do we monetise on Pay Per View? We don’t know yet, but we are assessing and we are seeking to do that for all our brands.”

On the merchandising side of things the organisation is happy with its results.

“I think we’ve seen the best year in probably recent times,” Hill shared.

The PFJL, through merchandising partners, provides home and away game apparel to the clubs. Replica shirts are available to fans for purchase. This merchandise is not limited to local sales but also reaches customers worldwide through online channels. Notably, every shirt purchase contributes directly to the clubs as 100 per cent of the sales revenue go to the respective teams.

Another source of revenue, betting, is now being sold in Asia and Europe, having expanded beyond the Caribbean and North America and earning between US$600 and US$1000 per game, with efforts being made to improve those returns.

Gate Receipts

But perhaps the most challenging revenue source is gate receipts. The issue is not one of lack of interest from match-going fans. Instead, the league faces logistical and infrastructure obstacles that have limited its ability to capitalise on community support, which drives game attendance.

There are clubs that do not have facilities in place which meet the standard for broadcast quality, and this has forced the PFJL to improvise by playing a significant number of games at centralised venues.

“The centralised venues are specifically for the quality of the pitch, the ability to host the game itself with lights, and all the attendant things that are required,” Hill explained. “We need to have centralised games that are broadcast-quality worthy — and not all the facilities have the broadcast equipment and the things that will allow for the quality to be there.”

The main reason why broadcast quality drives these decisions is because of another revenue stream — player sales. Player sales can far exceed attendance figures, and exceptional broadcast standards are critical for selling players. They are crucial to attracting scouts from around the world who can effectively evaluate players by watching high-quality broadcasts. Moreover, these recordings play a vital role in technical development and player profiling efforts.

Nevertheless, the PFJL appreciates that community support is key to the long-term sustainability of a club and that infrastructure issues must be solved so that clubs can capitalise on attendance at their home grounds.

“The clubs told me, and the clubs were right, that if you do the central venues you’re going to leave the communities, and the communities are not going to feel attached to their teams and you’re going to hurt the gate,” Williams remarked.

The chairman explained why funding is a challenge.

“We cannot fix the infrastructure of the clubs without grants, and the number one grant agency in the world is FIFA [International Federation of Association Football], and FIFA won’t speak to me, they’ll only speak to JFF [Jamaica Football Federation],” Williams lamented, indicating that it is incumbent on the JFF to expeditiously address this issue because “we are not getting any help”.

He identified better turf and lighting as the areas that are crucial for improving the quality of play and attracting larger crowds.

Average attendance

Despite these roadblocks the PFJL can take heart from some of its attendance numbers.

“Six thousand to 7000 patrons are coming into the stadium at any given game in a play-off,” Hill disclosed. “In the grand scheme of things you would say those are not massive numbers globally but for a local space, if you have that, that’s very good. If you have 7000 people watching a football game, that’s massive.”

The CEO expressed that the goal is to have at least 2,000 people attending regular season games while exploring alternative avenues to help clubs secure investment for improvements, such as public-private partnerships and capitalisation funds.

Overcoming the current challenges in all areas of branding and revenue streams is key to building financially viable, sustainable products and markets for Jamaica’s football industry. This is the rationale behind the PFJL’s patient, step-by-step, multifaceted approach.

“We’re building out five or six revenue streams,” Williams said. “We have not prioritised one over the other; all five or six are critically important to the success of the industry. So just like in tourism where the tourist pays for the hotel, buys a drink, buys the food, buys a souvenir, and goes on a tour, there are various streams in an industry and we are building all the streams.”

“I know Jamaicans are more focused on going to the World Cup,” the chairman continued, “but I am asking Jamaica to dream a little bit bigger than that to fathom having the IPL [Indian Premier League] of football in this region.”