The business of sports

I have been watching with interest the different sporting bodies announce that they are short of funds and how they need resources to continue their development programmes.  The most obvious of these is the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) but I have also seen it for hockey, volleyball, softball and of course cricket.  The problem is that these federations are outdated and are still operating under the days when sport was mainly an amateur business.  Presently however, sports are no longer amateur and have in fact become big business.

In order to succeed in sports, international competition is required in order to be able to compete with other countries.  Many of these countries have huge budgets to finance their sporting bodies.  In addition these sports have recognised the importance of marketing and brand recognition.  In order to succeed a sport has three main sources of revenue. The first is sponsorship, the second is spectator support and television rights and the third is sale of merchandise.  If any one of these is missing it is very difficult to fund the development of a sport.

In Jamaica most of these factors are entirely missing and thus it makes it hard to compete.  It is time for federations to rethink their way of operating and to start thinking like a business.  If you have a product that nobody wants, no matter how well you market it nobody will buy it.  Some sports such as hockey, softball and rugby are so far removed from the interest of the public that it is highly unlikely that they can succeed, as sponsors and television have no desire to support what is not wanted.

Even football, which is reasonably well supported has difficulty getting a core support as evidenced by the number of matches at the stadium that result in losses for the federation.  If the local public is not interested what scope is there for the sale of television rights to overseas countries.  Merchandising is one of the main areas in which we can do better but this is also dependent on being able to compete globally.

It is time for us to focus on the sports that we do best and for federations to realise that some sports cannot survive locally.  Implement business practices such as financing, marketing, budgeting and corporate governance.  Focus on providing sports that the people want and put aside those unrealistic dreams that most sports administrations seem to have.

The matter of sports is a business and must be run as a business in order to succeed.