‘My role is strictly to make money’

In an effort to revive the flailing National Basketball League (NBL), the premier basketball league in the country, the Jamaica Basketball Association (JaBA), has appointed former Chairman of the Jamaica Premier League (JPL) Christopher Williams as chairman of the competition’s commercial arm.

Williams, who stepped aside as JPL chairman at the end of last season, noted that his role with the NBL, similarly to the JPL, is to make money, and believes the league has a lot of potential for growth and success.

“It’s important to appreciate that what I have been asked to build is a financially viable and successful league. My role is strictly to make money and build a league that is profitable,” he told The Gleaner.

“That’s what the executives of JaBA have asked, and I love it because I like to be a part of successful businesses. And I think the geographical location of Jamaica, the attractiveness of the Jamaica brand, and the popularity of the sport globally give us the ability to create a profitable league.”

However, he insists they must find the right characteristics and product features, and apply it appropriately, in order to develop an attractive and financially viable league.

The businessman is currently putting the business, expense and revenue strategies together, along with all new businesses, to present to the executive of JaBA for their approval. He believes his time with the JPL gives him the experience to succeed in this new endeavour.

“I am coming into this with the experience of five years building the Jamaica Premier League, so I have had some good experience at building a sports business.”

Revenue challenges

Nevertheless, generating revenue for the league and the clubs will have its challenges and so far, he has identified sponsorship and gate receipts as the two top revenue sources.

Broadcasting will be used to promote and market the league; however, not much revenue is expected to be gained from that.

“Because of Internet and streaming, purchasers of content have been decimated. So broadcast is just too hard to sell. Nobody is really buying broadcast content.

“So we have locked in on gates and sponsorship, and how we grow that. We will have a title sponsor and look to build the brand of the league around a strong title sponsor, to merge the brand of the title sponsor with the brand of the league.

“Each team (club) will have a sponsor brand associate with it, like the Jamaica Premier League, to give teams a brand association and some financial stability,” he said.

JaBA will look to start promotions this week and so far the feedback is massive, Williams said. The proposal is to run the league in the summer, from July to September, with the games to be held inside the National Arena, which Williams believes will generate a better atmosphere and bring the fans closer to the game and players, than the National Indoor Sports Centre.

The league will culminate with an excitement-filled play-offs, which will include dancehall artistes as a big part of the execution.

The 2026 World Cup in the USA, Mexico, and Canada over the summer will be a big factor in the scheduling of league games.

However, Williams said he has noted those challenges and has given JaBA a proposal to mitigate.

“We suspect that most of the (World Cup) games will be in the evenings and will clash with us. My idea is to have the (NBL) play-offs after the first and second round of the World Cup, when the games are spread out. The first-round games are every day, but when it gets to quarter-final it’s more spread out. So we have looked at the schedule, and I think that’s the best way forward,” he disclosed.

Although his appointment is for three years, Williams is looking to achieve profitability in his first year.

“I want, come summer, the house is packed and we have a lot of sponsors. I have called all the sponsors. We are finalising sponsorship proposals, and the sponsors have confidence in what we have done in the past, and that they will get good returns for their buck.”

Trying to revive league

Meanwhile, JaBA President Paulton Gordon revealed that for some time they have been trying to revive the national club league and bring it to a semi-professional status.

He pointed out that they took note of what Williams did with the JPL and wanted some of those opportunities for their young players.

“We want to create a league locally that can be a feeder for regional professional leagues and, by extension, leagues in Asia and Europe.

“I have been speaking to Chris for a while about it. He came to both (Jamaica World Cup qualifying) games and saw the interest, saw the energy, saw the potential, and reached out and said he was ready to have further discussion about moving the process forward,” said Gordon.

Gordon said the next step is for Williams to have discussions with JaBA on the commercialisation and marketing aspects.

livingston.scott@gleanerjm.com