ANDREW PRICE is by no stretch of the imagination a prophet, but at the Wray and Nephew National Premier League Awards ceremony last August when he said "I long for the day when the National Premier League is broadcast on Sky Sports, Fox TV or ESPN", not many believed it would become a reality.
Yesterday, the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) and a New York-based cable network, Caribbean International Network (CIN), announced that the island's top football league has taken off and has gone abroad.
"We started some eight weeks ago and the response has been tremendous," CIN Chief Executive Officer Stephen Hill told members of the media at a press conference held at the JFF's St. Lucia Avenue headquarters in New Kingston.
Under the agreement with the JFF, CIN makes weekly broadcasts of the Wray and Nephew National Premier League match of the week and highlights other games in the Tri-State area of the United States to a potential audience of about one million viewers.
Hill says it is a first for the Caribbean to have a premier sporting league aired on American television.
"I would like to congratulate the JFF for taking a step in the right direction. Even Mr. Jack Warner from Trinidad could not achieve that," Hill said.
A dollar value could not be placed on the amount of money the JFF is expected to reap from the partnership with CIN. Hill however handed over US$7,500 or just over J$450,000 to the federation and stated that he expects to hand over more in the future whenever more sponsors come on board. At present, Wray and Nephew is the only sponsor of the one-hour long production which is packaged by Television Jamaica.
PROCEEDS TO BE SPLIT EQUALLY
Proceeds from the two-year venture will be split equally between the JFF and CIN. Of the figure received by the JFF, 76 per cent will go to the 12 Premier League clubs and is to be apportioned equally. The federation will keep the remaining 24 per cent.
Besides the obvious benefit of more money for the clubs, the JFF's first vice-president, George Evans, who is responsible for marketing the federation, said the partnership will "popularise Jamaican football tremendously".
"This is an avenue where players will be exposed to the growing market place of the MLS (Major League Soccer) and other affiliated leagues. It will also expose the level of development and potential of our major domestic games. There is also the possibility of attracting not only the local-based companies in Jamaica but individuals and companies whose decision-makers are based overseas," Evans said.
And directly related to Evans' foresight of attracting more sponsors to the NPL, Wray and Nephew Communications and Promo-tions manager, Price, called on other corporate enterprises to help in the development of the sport locally.
"We did not qualify for the 2006 World Cup but football is not dead in this country. Let us continue to make sure that we preserve the talent and the inspiration that we have, that is the youths that play the sport," Price said.
In the meantime, the JFF will meet about 25 private sector companies tomorrow with a view to securing additional sponsorship for the local football programme. |
