The Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) has come in for plenty of criticism from people who believe the body has failed to maximise on the success of athletes at major track and field championships.

But members of the association have insisted that efforts are being made to roll out initiatives to earn revenue from the global exposure. Those initiatives include the building of brand partnerships, the selling of television rights and the business of merchandising.

Dr Warren Blake, the president of the JAAA, said the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) is one entity that has been approached with a view of creating an official partnership.

Blake, speaking during Friday’s Jamaica Observer Press Club at the newspaper’s base on Beechwood Avenue, used the example of Jamaica’s gold-winning exploits at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing, China, which saw the National Anthem being played on seven occasions.

“We won seven gold medals, that means seven times on the podium with the Jamaican Anthem being played for one minute to an international audience, second only to the Olympics,” Blake told editors and reporters.

He argued that such exposure offered significant boost to Brand Jamaica.

“You can think of the dollar spend that the JTB and other entities would have to pay to get that amount of exposure. We feel that brings direct value to Brand Jamaica,” he continued.

The JAAA boss said “discussion is ongoing” with the JTB and added that he is hopeful that the association will be “able to get some funds” upon implementation of a proposed arrangement.

Dennis Gordon, the communications officer of the JAAA, reinforced Blake’s view.

“If you look at the major beneficiaries when we do well on the global stage it’s the tourist sector. It’s nine days of competition and television time showcasing Brand Jamaica. It is time that JAAA is considered for a percentage of the advertising budget to offset operational expenses,” Gordon said.

The selling of television rights for the National Athletics Championships and the Jamaica International Invitational (JII) Meet has also been explored.

However, the JAAA treasurer Ludlow Watts said there have been challenges.

“Television rights has not been as lucrative as people would think. The Jamaican (target) market is Europe and when we have a meet at 7:00 pm that would be 2 or 3 o’clock (the following morning) in Europe. Secondly, European people that would want to be sponsors would not have products in Jamaica,” he said.

Watt conceded that countries in Asia — usually having a time difference of 12 to 15 hours ahead of Jamaica — provide feasible markets.

“We are actually actively pursuing all angles to determine what other revenue enhancements we can get from television rights. One of the areas we are looking at is Asia because that would be fine in terms of next morning,” the treasurer said.

The 2015 JII Meet in May was broadcast delayed by an international broadcast company for an undisclosed sum.

According to Watts, US$30,000 was made from selling rights for the National Championships to an international firm.

“They wanted select segments and it was uncharted territory and although we got expert support it was not lucrative to us as we would have liked. We are having discussion with different entities and we hope that we will be able to get more revenue from television,” said Watts.

He said he is not able to project what kind of revenue could be derived from future arrangements.

The JAAA executives also explained that the issue of producing high definition (HD) quality for broadcast is a challenge. They argued that the European market, in particular, is mostly interested in the considerably expensive HD footage, while local television carriers are limited to standard quality.

Providing for both, they said, would mean splitting the production and incurring expenditure beyond their reach.

For now, at least, the focus is to produce standard quality to a live television audience; a strategy that provides value to local sponsors.

Watts said merchandising has endured obstacles relating to the limited track and field visibility compared to European club football.

“There is a challenge with merchandising because in football and in track and field it’s different. There is global attraction for clubs because of the frequency of football matches. Sponsors are more reluctant [to athletics] because track and field events are not as frequent,” he explained.

Ian Forbes, the second vice-president of the association, said attention has also turned to the increasingly popular JAAA All Comers Development Meet as a possible money-maker.

“At the All Comers Meet we’ve had world leading performances and that’s an area we are looking at in terms of enhancing our revenue… with spectator attendance fee,” he declared.

Forbes reiterated that “innovative methods of fund-raising” are being explored, including increasing the number of sponsorship partners.

He concluded: “It’s a work in progress, and of course we have been looking at devising means of raising funds in an organised fashion and in a sustainable fashion.”

The All Comers Meet has been known to attract some of Jamaica’s most prominent track and field competitors.

President of the JAAA Dr Warren Blake (right) makes a point at the Jamaica Observer Press Club at the newspaper’s Beechwood Avenue offices on Friday. Also pictured is JAAA’s communications officer Dennis Gordon. (PHOTO: NAPHTALI JUNIOR)