SPORT is big business and it is time the Government and corporate Jamaica recognise it as such.

The world's richest football club, Real Madrid of Spain, is reportedly worth 350 million euros in terms of revenue. Cricket generates US$20 million per year in broadcast rights to the West Indies Cricket Board, while the England & Wales Cricket Board generates upwards of US$150 million.

The UK Guardian reported that the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games cost the Chinese government £20 billion with the building of a new stadium, airport terminal, installation of railway lines, roads and sporting venues.

The Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) is still uncertain of the final cost of sending Jamaica's 53-member contingent to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

President Mike Fennell yesterday told the Sunday Observer the final figures were still not in.

"We're just coming to understand that sports is an industry," Olympian and Director of Sports at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Grace Jackson, said at a recent panel discussion on the business of sport.

The conference was a joint effort between the Mona School of Business and the Department of Management Studies at the UUW held at the Mona Campus of the university. Among the panellists were Jackson, MVP Track & Field Club president Bruce James; former managing director of the ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007, Chris Dehring; Harbour View Football Club Chairman Carvel Stewart, and Digicel senior sponsorship manager, Shelly-Ann Curran.

Dehring hinted at the continual proverbial "dropping of the ball" by the local tourist board and the Jamaican government when it comes to capitalising on the achievements of the country's sporting stars because sports was seen more for its social, rather than business and financial impact.

"It's time to bottle 'Lightning," Dehring said in alluding to triple Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt's performance at the Olympic Games in August.

Meanwhile, the UK's Financial Times reported that within an hour of Bolt's world record run of 9.69 second in the 100m final on August 15, sales of the athlete's Theseus II spikes soared by more than two million pairs.

In fact, Bolt's handlers as well as his sponsor, Puma, have pushed the fast-forward button on his marketing campaign since the Beijing Games.

The lanky sprinter appeared on both the David Letterman and Live with Regis And Kelly shows in one week, and his image is currently emblazoned on buses and billboards all over New York City and Los Angeles in the United States in a Puma-sponsored ad.

Local enterprises hoping to capitalise on his success have been selling anything from a pin to an anchor with the Bolt image in one form or another, prompting his management company to take out an ad in a local newspaper last Friday warning the general public against the the illegal manufacturing and selling of items bearing the athlete's name and image.

Bolt, meanwhile, has since launched his own clothing line under his trademark label.

According to Jackson, Jamaica's tourism officials who witnessed the nation's 11-medal haul in Beijing seemed unprepared for the impact the small country would have had on the Chinese capital.

"Sometimes they tried to prepare but sometimes not enough... I don't think they understood what was going to happen to them," Jackson said.

James, a founding member of the 10-year-old MVP Club, said the athletics club teetered on the financial edge for years.

The four founders, including head coach Stephen Francis, personally funded the club for the first few years after being stonewalled in their bid to garner funding from corporate Jamaica.

The breakthrough finally came in 2002 when its top athletes in former 100m world record-holder Asafa Powell and Brigitte Foster-Hylton started having international success that earned them invitations to meets on the European circuit which brought shoe deals as a spin-off.

James said, however, that the outfit was still not profitable despite the eight medals overall club members won in Beijing because it was more focussed on athletes' development rather than making money. He said the 20 elite athletes support a club with a membership of 80.

He also had a five-point business model critical for the success of a track club such as MVP. The basic raw materials - labour, capital, and management - must be present, said James.

It must be a full service organisation; must establish team spirit; always challenge the status quo and be exposed both financially and otherwise.

Dehring, who identified fear of commercialisation due to lack of understanding as a key problem, also had a five-point model which included developing the sports media, legal and tax structure, which would also require local sports people to pay taxes on their earnings.

Stewart noted that sports also involved more than the people who play them. A sport like football, for instance, employs a range of people, including doctors and therapists. Further, there was market for nutritional products, manufacturing of sporting goods and related memorabilia and keepsake items.

"The truth is we don't know what the potential is for the growth of sports business in Jamaica... the business of sport is huge," Stewart said.

Curran said 70 per cent of Digicel's sponsorship was in sport and urged corporate Jamaica to "step up to the plate".

She said the value received could be well over that of the money spent, and cited the recent Digicel Kick Start Clinic where the company spent approximately US$350,000 on sponsorship and promotion and to date, has earned an estimated US$1 million in value.

Meanwhile, the UWI has recognised the importance of sports in its overall development and has committed to providing the necessary training and competitive facilities.

It will expand its teaching offerings in sports-related courses at the postgraduate level and will commence two masters degree programmes - the first an MSc in Sports and Exercise Medicine and one reflecting the emphasis on the business aspect of sports, the Masters in Sports and Events Management.

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