AS Professional Football Jamaica Limited (PFJL) explores ways to further improve the Jamaica Premier League, Sponsorship and Executions Manager Avery Campbell believes all stakeholders must deepen their commitment and be open to change.

The entertainment and culture enterprise management major has been part of the PFJL executive since 2022, after being recruited by Chairman Chris Williams. The league has seen an increase in corporate partnerships over the last few seasons, including the $60-million deal with title sponsor Wray and Nephew.

Campbell, however, says it’s been a challenge implementing certain initiatives due to the unwillingness of some involved.

“I want more for this space but I and my team don’t believe stakeholders see what it would take just from them. And it’s not about money — it’s just about a mindset. It feels like it’s hard to reach out to who we’re representing, which are the stakeholders of football,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

“Sometimes they don’t see that to commercialise the league, to make some big strides, to appeal to international and look a certain way, they have to do certain things. The biggest challenge — and I think it’s a challenge that is dwindling but it’s still there — is doing my job and keeping myself inspired because it can knock me down because these people just aren’t understanding that how you carry yourself, player development, mental, how you speak [all matters]. We’re trying, and sometimes it’s demotivating,” Campbell added.

Campbell is urging the players to improve their professionalism in order to be more appealing to the public and organisations.

“I learnt early working at PFJL that how you present yourself is how people treat you. I think, generally, there’s this ‘don’t care’ approach to how things look from a team perspective. It doesn’t matter about the money — everybody knows how to put themselves together — so my biggest goals is, yes, to increase sponsorship and make them well engrained, but I want to tie sponsors to players. Have individual players be brand ambassadors because it will help islandwide. This will help their community, families, their children, and build the players’ resumes,” she said.

“Sponsors can come on board and give teams speech training because we broadcast for people around the world; it’s not just the Caribbean or the Diaspora, it’s also these people they’re trying to reach to, the scouts. I really think JPL is a tourism product, and it should be that. In order for it to be that, it needs to look and sound a certain way because it’s not going to sell well — and not just selling to sponsors, but to people and families to come to the game,” she added.

Despite the challenges, Campbell says she’s happy that the popularity of the league is growing.

“One of my joys is being able to reach people who never had any thought of JPL. It’s also educating people like myself because back in the day I never thought of JPL, I don’t even think I saw a glimpse of JPL, but now I would say all types of people are seeing JPL in the street, the paper, the news, so we’re reaching a lot of people and connecting,” she said.

“In the first year we were giving [fans] groceries sponsored by Honey Bun, and that filled my heart because people were coming to the games, Digicel was doing this extravaganza. And now we have Wray and Nephew who are looking out for the bar experience, the girls, the excitement, who is going to perform, and so on. Every season I’ve been on it’s just a pleasure to see how we can incorporate the sponsors, and the league kind of feels like a spectacle,” Campbell added.

She also has objectives which she believes will further improve the nation’s top flight.

“I really want the Jamaica Premier League to be more inviting and way more mainstream, everybody should be talking about it. I think we’re too zoned in on community; I think we should be islandwide. Whether you’re in high, prep or primary school, you’re talking about JPL. If you come from Mobay, you’re talking about JPL. That means [we need] to increase our creativity with marketing and just be outside,” Campbell said.

“I would [also] love to have corporate Jamaica to come in and invest heavily on our pitches, make some stadiums, improve some stadiums, because it will improve how the games are, improve the confidence of the players, the results, the competitiveness. It will improve so much.