WE are eagerly awaiting positive words from the Premier League Clubs Association (PLCA) regarding the 2011-2012 Premier League football season, which it claims will kick off as scheduled at the end of next month, despite the absence of a title sponsor.

Readers will recall that telecommunications giant, Digicel ended its three-year $150-million sponsorship at the completion of last season, and that negotiations with its intended replacement, another telecommunications giant, LIME, broke down earlier this month.

LIME’s managing director, Mr Garry Sinclair explained that “after evaluating the proposal and our capacity to execute at the level we believe the league requires and deserves, we concluded that a partnership with the PLCA would not be possible in the current financial year”.

In our view, Jamaica’s semi-professional football sector is an integral part of the sports/entertainment industry, which is responsible for an ever-increasing contribution to GDP.

The PLCA, under the leadership of former Prime Minister Mr Edward Seaga, was established three years ago and one of its core functions was to manage the Premier League, thus removing that responsibility from the already stretched Jamaica Football Federation (JFF). We have seen progress since.

Title sponsors Wray & Nephew, who were committing up to $25 million per year, were replaced by the short-lived Cash Plus for the start of the 2007 season. In stepped Digicel, which facilitated approximately 70 to 75 per cent of its sponsorship cash value going directly to the 12 clubs. That, in addition to incentives, provided a big boost for the clubs. However, the harsh reality is that the league remains difficult to sustain because of high costs.

With a conservatively estimated $15 million required to operate each club for the season, there has never been enough money to fully fund these debt-ridden clubs.

Professional sporting organisations have just a few sources of income to fund their operations – TV rights, admission fees, merchandising, marketing/advertising and transfer or sale of players, come readily to mind.

Relative to our situation, marketing/advertising and transfer/sale of players are the most likely revenue streams for our local clubs. The situation would improve if title sponsors and the PLCA could agree on the ownership of the players’ shirts.

That, we understand, was one of the bugbears in recent negotiations. The PLCA wants

the shirts to solicit additional sponsors, while the title sponsors, who always had it as part of their overall sponsorship, weren’t willing to let it go.

Mr Seaga assures: “We have taken that in stride and are now in negotiations from a different perspective by bringing more people on board in smaller monetary packages to be able to finance the full programme of sponsorship…We are not ruling out anyone and it’s just a matter of re-configuring the sponsorship packages in a way that a larger number of sponsors can participate, each with smaller amounts of funding.”

While all sponsorships are appreciated, we fully support Mr Seaga’s position and the PLCA for holding out for the exclusive use of the shirts at this time. If the league is to become self-sufficient, then the clubs must have access to the shirts for additional revenue opportunities. Anything less and the PLCA and the clubs will forever be in debt.

After all, that’s how it is done in the wider football world.