Hill: PFJL meeting its targets

Owen Hill, chief executive officer of Professional Football Jamaica Limited (PFJL), says the regular season of the 2023-24 Wray & Nephew-sponsored Jamaica Premier League (JPL) is being viewed as a success for his administration.

As the season winds to a close, Hill is fairly pleased with the operations throughout the season and said they have seen improvements from last year’s staging.

He explained that before the start of the season, the PFJL had outlined a strategic plan they would use as a mark of success for the administration.

With the final games of the regular season played on Sunday, Hill is satisfied that the PFJL had met their targets.

“We’re guided by our strategic plans so any assessment of the season is in relation to the strategic plan,” he explained. “We can say that so far we have hit those targets. There are different revenue streams that we’re here to build out for the clubs so the commercial side of the business is trending in the right direction.”

He further explained one of the major targets for the PFJL was to increase the commercial value of the league and generate more revenue for the participating clubs.

For Hill, the administration placed particular focus on how the league is marketed to its stakeholders – sponsors, clubs and fans alike. They have noted a steady increase in sponsorships through its marketing and the general consensus shows an improvement in the league’s presentation.

“In terms of revenue generation for clubs and sponsorships, we have seen a slight increase but again it’s a process that we keep building on. The general feeling from the people outside is that the league is getting better; how it looks, how it is promoted, how it is marketed and the general administration is better.

“Given that, I’ll say personally I’d give myself like an eight out of 10 as an organisation but there is still more than we can achieve given what we have set out to do.”

PFJL targeting more televised games

However, while the administration has seen improvements, there are still areas which will need more work. One such area is the number of games televised throughout the season.

According to Hill, the PFJL will be aiming to have more games televised each week on a regular basis. In their current model, there are four JPL games being televised each week.

Hill said with the PFJL’s partnership with Wyscout, an online sports statistic company, there is greater need for televised matches throughout the season. With more televised games, Wyscout will be able to gather more professional data on the players and the JPL will be able to create greater revenue through television rights.

“We’re here to commercialise the business as far as possible, so that is one of the areas of concern, considering now that we have that partnership with Wyscout,” he said. “I am keen on having more games being televised. Currently, we only have four games generally every week of the seven. So the approach is once you’re playing a football game at the highest level, then it should be recorded and then made available.

“Once we do that, then we’ll be better able to extract more financial value through television rights. So more games being televised means more opportunities to sell television rights so that teams get a chance to see themselves in different capacities.”