Even wh ile uncertainty remains as to whether football will return to the island any time soon, Professional Football Jamaica (PFJ), led by Chris Williams, has been busy securing sponsors for the Jamaica Premier League.

In the last two weeks, the PFJ has announced deals with five club sponsors who have come on board to provide support of the premier league.

Williams, who was a guest on television on Tuesday night, explained that the PFJ is not prepared to rest on its laurels during this period of uncertainty.

“What people recognise [including the sponsors], is that you have to ride and whistle. You could not expect us to get an approval and then go looking for commercial support. So, we have to, in good faith, go to our sponsors and get commercial support, so that if and when we get the approval, we are ready to go. I think it’s the prudent thing to do.

“We felt that it was critical to present the commercial value to Corporate Jamaica and see if they would buy it, and what is clear is that football is an attractive commercial asset,” he explained.

Williams said that people can look forward to further announcements in the coming days.

“We have a great team and we have worked long and hard to put the commercial package together and we are very, very happy for the five club sponsors that have come on board already. To those that we are still in negotiations with, we look forward to closing them any day now and to make further announcements.”

The PFJ Chairman explained how the new type of sponsorship of the league is broken down into different skews to attract different levels of sponsors and the reasons for doing so.

“What we did, is that we divided the commercial assets into seven skews, five of which are targeted to Corporate Jamaica and two of which are targeted to individuals.

“The first is the presenting sponsor. We have moved away from a title sponsor, because we would like to establish the brand. Just like the brand of La Liga and the brand of the EPL [English Primier League] is established, we would like to establish the Jamaica Premier League.

“Secondly, we have a league sponsor and that sponsor gets on everybody’s shirt and is promoted in every game. Thirdly, we have a club sponsor. That sponsor is only promoted on one club shirt and is only promoted during that club’s game and get the entitlements associated with the promotion when that club is playing.

“Fourthly, we have advertising spots, because we’re going to be broadcasting, on cable and on streaming, at least 100 games, which is a record, and also going to be carrying on free to air, at least 29 games, which also, is extremely good. Finally, we will have a broadcasting sponsor.”

Williams believes that the proposed level of coverage will make for great advertising opportunities.

“The level of coverage for the league is extremely great and what that means is that we will have advertising spots and we will sell those advertising spots in conjunction with our broadcasting sponsors.”

There are also two skews that are not targeting commercial sponsors, but geared directly at the fans of football.

“We have two skews which are to individuals and those are the obvious ones, which is merchandise and gate. There is no gate this year, but obviously in the future there will be gate and then of course we will introduce, very shortly, a merchandising platform,” he outlined.

The PFJ is targeting $100m to run the league and Williams said that they are halfway towards achieving their target.

— Dwayne Richards