THE Premier League Clubs Association, the body that runs the Red Stripe Premier League, which is the island’s biggest club football competition, needs to rethink how they administer a league that is badly in need of new ideas.

Not only does the PLCA lack marketing skills but they are in serious danger of cutting off the majority of the island with their Kingston and St Andrew mindset.

While the league has undergone several name changes over the past three decades and is no longer called a ‘national league’, that is what it is and should be, no matter that too many coaches of Kingston-based clubs behave as if a three-hour drive to western Jamaica can cause jet lag and affect the team’s performance.

The PLCA sent out their latest fixture list, the fourth update that should take them through to the end of the season.

Like any lover of the sport, I started checking to see when the highly anticipated games would be coming up and one thing jumped out at me immediately: Of the 12 Monday night games on the schedule including the one this week, the defending champions Montego Bay United, one of the top teams so far this year, will play exactly one game, at Arnett Gardens on January 26th.

Arnett Gardens will play five games to be on national television on Monday night, Humble Lion has four games including a second one in Clarendon against rivals Sporting Central Academy while Boys Town, battling to avoid relegation for a second straight year along with Waterhouse, Harbour View, Tivoli Gardens and Cavalier all have two games.

The fixtures prior to this show very little difference — Arnett Gardens and Waterhouse would have appeared five times each; Boys Town and Cavalier four each; Humble Lion three times with Harbour View; Barbican, Tivoli and Sporting Central two each.

How is this equity?

In well-run leagues, the organisers would ensure they highlight their best teams. Just look at how the NBA, the BPL and other European league and the NFL do their national television schedules.

The opening game between MBU and Reno FC was scheduled to be on Monday night but the telecast was scrapped over uncertainty as to whether MBU would play the game. Since then, MBU has been on national TV once, a Kingston game against Harbour View.

We heard last year, off the record of course, that it was too expensive to move the equipment to Montego Bay for just one game and that the turnout was poor when they did in the past, which is bad for television.

I am sure Flow could tell them otherwise, as their Champions Cup KO final between Montego Bay United and Reno FC attracted a big crowd, but then again it appears Flow does a much better job marketing its product than the PLCA or Red Stripe does.

Maybe PLCA and Red Stripe does not care that the rest of Jamaica, outside of western Kingston and South St Andrew, are tired of watching the same teams play at the same venues every Monday night.

Maybe they are not aware that the Internet and cable provide much better alternatives.

If the Jamaica Football Federation has its way and the franchise system is instituted next season, will it continue to marginalise most of the country?