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Karl
Senior Member
USA
914 Posts |
 Posted - Feb 14 2004 : 09:25:20 AM
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NPL clubs tackle cash crunch
Colin Hemmings, Observer writer
Saturday, February 14, 2004
When Star Cosmos thrashed Los Perfectos at the end of last June to book their place in this season's National Premier League (NPL), thousands of spectators at Port Maria's Clemhard Park erupted in mass euphoria. But club chairman Bryan Rhoden maintained a staid demeanour, belying his personal satisfaction at what the club had just accomplished. He was staring at the stark reality of financing a National Premier League club.
"Fans came up to me and were wondering why I wasn't celebrating. But I was there thinking - how am I going to finance this thing?" recalled Rhoden. "Since the season started I have had many sleepless nights over this thing."
Not one of the 12 NPL football teams can confirm that the League is working out for them financially. They all bemoan the fact that their expenses far outstrip their revenues and that much more financial support is needed.
"It obviously is not working despite J Wray and Nephew pumping in a lot of money," said Mark Miller, general manager of Spanish Town's Rivoli. "Our corporate sponsorship is pretty much zero."
Clubs reveal a ballpark cost of $50,000 for a trip between Kingston and western Jamaica. For Kingston and St Catherine clubs, that totals $200,000. For Westmoreland's Reno that's $400,000 just to go to eastern Jamaica. And with Invaders, Village and Seba all more than two hours' drive away, Reno's travelling bill tops out at around half a million dollars. And that's before the beginning of the third round.
Salaries incurred by the clubs, for the most part, range between half a million to a million dollars a month. All told, big clubs like Harbour View and Arnett Gardens have expenses approaching the $20M ballpark. Corporate sponsorship is seen as the main saviour to keep these clubs going.
"Corporate Jamaica has a social responsibility to football," said Reno's vice president, Fitzroy Cooper.
Such responsibility hasn't filtered down much to Reno according to Cooper. Recently the club had to undertake a fund-raising appeal to the Westmoreland community to ensure their viability in the league.
Arnett Gardens' financial controller, Courtney Livingston, estimates corporate sponsors like Puma, Lucozade, Air Jamaica and Wata of the WISYNCO Trading group of companies defray 70% of the team's operating budget. He would like to see more sponsorship for the club to realise its international ambitions.
"We would like to host international tournaments but the costs prevent us from doing that," said Livingston. "We have had contacts from players all over the world - Nigeria, Europe and South America - who want to play for us but we just can't afford them. We have financial problems too," he added.
While Arnett Gardens appear to attract more corporate sponsorship than any other club in Jamaica, Waterhouse is not doing too badly on that front. Tank-weld has been a major financier and they were instrumental in seeing the completion of the new mini-stadium at Drewsland.
Like Arnett, their consistently strong fan support has realised millions of dollars from gate receipts. Not surprisingly, sponsors like to see strong fan support so their visibility can be increased.
"Thank God for sponsors like Tru Juice and Tank-weld. Without them.boy," said Waterhouse's president, Leaford Grant, searching for words to express gratitude. "We are able to meet most of our bills. Of course we have to 'juggle' a lot to survive."
Harbour View, which has galvanised as much - if not more - international attention as Arnett because of European contracts for Ricardo Gardner and Keith Kelly has not seen the corporate sponsorship, befitting such a high-profile club. General manager, Clyde Jureidini, cites CFC Construction as being instrumental but can't seem to garner much help from elsewhere, apart from the club's cambio and cash pot operations.
"The business community don't merge with football because football at the club level is still viewed as a pastime," offered Jureidini. "Help is not forthcoming maybe because we have no political affiliation and the community is not a tense one.," he said.
Another team not associated with social tensions is Constant Spring, which depends mostly on individuals. Apart from the obligatory gate receipts and league sponsorships, corporate sponsorship is non-existent as Chairman Danny Lyn is responsible for providing most of the club's finances with a 'big assist' from Peter Chang, a director of the club.
Reigning champions, Portmore United, moved its base from Clarendon to the bedroom community just outside Kingston. But being fully entrenched in a community of close to quarter million residents has so far made little difference to the club's coffers. It's a struggle to pull a thousand spectators even for an Arnett Gardens, a popular road team. Not winning a home game since the league opener five months ago is certainly not the way to endear one's fan base. With little help at the gate, Portmore's need for sponsorship becomes even more telling. Wata has come on board and according to manager,
Clive Marshall, pledges from Member of Parliament member, Dr Paul Robertson, have helped.
As alluded to by Jureidini, when all else fails, politicians come to the clubs' aid and not just the Kingston's inner-city clubs. Former Minister of Water, Karl Blythe's association with Reno has been well documented.
Star Cosmos' chairman, Rhoden, credits senator Floyd Morris and Member of Parliament Morais Guy for jump-starting their programme with help from individuals like Jeff Mackitty of Beaches Boscobel and Pierre Battaglio of Sans Souci for funding most of the "$340,000 we had to pay to the league before we even kicked a ball".
Invaders, the other promoted team, is struggling big time as a result of the precipitous drop in its fan support. A thousand home fans at the beginning of the season became barely 100 for their third-round opener against table leaders, Tivoli. President Dale Walker revealed he was able to fully compensate his players just once all season.
Fellow Trelawny team, Village, have increased their corporate sponsorship 8-fold to around $1.5M, which helps with about 20% of the club's expenses.
"We have aggressively gone to corporate Jamaica and we have been able to put together a sponsors' package totalling about 30 sponsors," said director of finance, Glenn Lawrence. "We have to realise we are operating in an economy that's not vibrant at all. Look, the deep-pocketed individual is fast coming to an end."
LYN. responsible for providing most of Constant Spring's finances
Lawrence is pleased that all the club's sponsors have remained on board despite the hard times they are facing. He feels that because Village has remained competitive, corporate support has continued as the team has not disappointed its sponsors.
"People don't back a horse if they know it's going to lose," said Lawrence.
With local sources for financing drying up, several teams are casting an eye overseas to bail them out of their financial crunch. The transfer of Donovan Ricketts to Bolton for an initial fee of £30,000 is encouraging to Village, which stands to earn more from the deal depending on how valuable Ricketts becomes to the British Midlands club. Teams with strong youth programmes like Arnett Gardens, Portmore and Harbour View continue to invest heavily in their youth hoping it will pay off in the international transfer market.
"When you are marketing players for overseas, the younger they are the more attractive they become," said Livingston.
Almost all the teams lament what they perceive as the financial burden compounded by marrying the Under-21 competition with the NPL.
"Having to pull an Under-21 team has hurt the clubs. Everything you buy you have to do it twice. This is just too steep especially for a new club like Star Cosmos," lamented Rhoden.
"These Under-21 players demand money too," remarked Michael Blair, manager of Constant Spring, which loses players to college scholarships in the US, for which there are no financial returns.
One team that probably would hardly be heard of if not for foreign help is Rivoli.
"We get a little help from the MP, Sharon Hay-Webster, but we get over 90% of our support from friends of the club who reside overseas," said Miller.
Time will tell if Rivoli's foreign connections set a precedent. |
Karl |
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NPL clubs tackle cash crunch - 2004
