AS Professional Football Jamaica Limited (PFJL) continues its process of further commercialising and promoting the Jamaica Premier League, the Jamaica Observer interviewed Paul Christie, sporting director of Mount Pleasant Football Academy, and Peter Thelwell, general manager of Arnett Gardens FC, to gather their perspectives on how the PFJL’s initiatives have influenced their clubs and the overall league landscape.

Both men represent successful clubs at the highest level of Jamaican football, with Arnett Gardens, founded in 1977, having been champions of the top tier five times and runners-up four times, while relative newcomers Mount Pleasant, created in 2016, won the Jamaica Premier League for the first time in their history this year.

The PFJL, since its creation in 2020 to manage the league, has been focused on expanding the league’s brand portfolio through various professional competitions, including a league, knockout cup, planned youth league and preseason matches, among other products. It has also been working to increase revenue streams through broadcasting, sponsorship, merchandising, player sales, betting, and gate receipts.

Right off the bat, Christie expressed appreciation for the increase in match broadcasts, noting that the league has moved from only one of seven fixtures being broadcast weekly to broadcasting upwards of 66 per cent of the games for the entire season, a figure that could have included all the games if not for current logistical limitations.

Commenting on the increased exposure of the league, particularly in the Caribbean, Thelwell revealed that “we are getting requests from players all across the region now who want to play in Jamaica”.

“Players for their national teams will be playing amateur in their country,” he said. “They want to come here and play in the Jamaica Premier League, a professional Caribbean league. The vibrancy that PFJL created has caused us to see…interests from different areas.

“The league has grown in leaps and bounds,” the general manager of Arnett Gardens opined.

“What PFJL has done is packaging and putting the product forward in a different way. I mean the gears are professionally made by one company for every team so the teams look uniform[ed]. They have done a lot with the look and feel of the sport in the region.”

Sponsors have increased dramatically as well through the creation of different tiers of sponsorship, from the tournament and league level to the club level.

Thelwell noted that the expenses of a premier league club are high, with organisations needing to earn up to 3 to 4 million dollars per month just to provide livable salaries for professional players. While the increased sponsorship cannot cover those and other expenses he is grateful for the help it provides in addressing the challenge, adding that it is up to the clubs to find additional income sources.

The full potential of broadcasting is being hampered by infrastructure issues at various clubs. The challenge is the lack of broadcast-quality facilities in certain clubs. As a result, the PFJL has worked around the issue by playing a significant number of games at centralised venues. These venues are selected based on their ability to meet the required standards for broadcasting, including pitch quality, lighting, and other necessary elements. Insufficient broadcasting equipment to cover all venues is also a problem.

Centralised games often mean that clubs are unable to capitalise on community support to drive gate receipts, another revenue stream.

The PFJL is frustrated over club infrastructure and emphasised a dependence on grants to address the problem. PFJL Chairman Christopher Williams has highlighted that FIFA, the leading grant agency globally, only communicates with the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) and not directly with the PFJL. He has emphasised urgency for the JFF to take responsibility and promptly resolve the issue as assistance is desperately needed.

Mount Pleasant’s sporting director believes greater collaboration is needed from all the stakeholders in the league to address this problem.

“All the stakeholders need to get on board so that we can actually move together as one group,” he insisted. “Whether it is a voting group or whatever collective group, we decide we are going to improve Brooks Park (for argument’s sake) this year then as a group we approach the Ministry of Sport through the SDF [Sports Development Foundation,] and then we approach the JFF as our parent to draw down on the funding from FIFA. But yes, everybody is just on the side speaking about it. We are not brave enough to be about it and that’s why we are still at this point.”

Despite the obstacles, broadcasting is exposing Jamaican players to an international market with the intention of driving player sales, a pivotal revenue stream in the football industry. The planned collaboration beginning next season between the league and football scouting platform Wyscout, to collect analytical data on players, should facilitate a quantum leap forward in boosting this source of income.

Arnett Gardens is already positioning itself to capitalise on this development.

“We made the team younger so whereas the older players with experience may be able to win you the title, a younger, fresher team is more marketable,” Thelwell explained. “It’s easier to sell them overseas than an older player in his thirties or late twenties, even.

“We had five players in the recent Jamaica under-22 [squad] that went to San Salvador,” he continued. “All five were starters or regular players in our recently ended season so we have really gone much younger.”

Thelwell applauds the PFJL’s plan to introduce development leagues at the academy level, such as under-13, under-15 and under-17, as they provide a structured pathway for young players to progress and gain valuable experience, contributing to their long-term development. He emphasised the significance of standardised academy football under FIFA’s governance, which is highly regarded in international scouting and player evaluation.

While the PFJL is improving the environment for player sales, the Arnett Gardens general manager insists that the responsibility is on the clubs to take advantage of the opportunity.

“The PFJL has created a platform for us to showcase our talents,” Thelwell said. “It’s on the clubs to try and get their talents into different markets.”

Mount Pleasant’s sporting director explained that his club’s strategy does not focus directly on player sales but on building its brand through the broadcasting and marketing opportunities provided by the PFJL. And this will ultimately lead to increased player sales.

“The primary focus is on building the brand so that at the end of every season there is going to be a transition [of players] inward and outward, not to other local clubs but to regional and international markets,” Christie said. “It will take time, however that is at the forefront of our developmental model. You will see the results in maybe a year or two.

“As we currently speak there is interest in maybe five or six of our group of players from America, England, India, Macedonia, Slovenia — all of these countries — with an interest to purchase our players,” he added. “The inquiries are there but our focus is on building so that at the end of the day we will have a sustainable brand that is self-sufficient and will be able to be profitable over time.”

The two football executives expressed their enthusiasm for the direction of the Jamaica Premier League led by the PFJL, while acknowledging that there is still progress to be made in achieving objectives. They are not deterred by existing challenges but emphasise the importance of collaboration and the individual responsibility of clubs to navigate obstacles, seize the provided opportunities, and enhance their organisations in their own unique ways.

To use a football expression that signifies commitment to the rebuilding of a team through faith, patience and focus over the long term without being discouraged by short-term setbacks and challenges, they are “trusting the process”.