Pro League fights back.

[Flex]

Pro League fights back.
By: Lasana Liburd (wired868).

… All-inclusive Fridays coming to confound critics.

With little money, fewer friends and no sporting venues; the 2012/13 Digicel Pro League is preparing for another kick-off.

The season is scheduled to start on 7 September with what is likely to be a Super Friday double-header. There is no word on who is playing yet, though. Or even what clubs are taking part in the competition.

If that reality conjures up visions of disorder, then one would not expect to find at the centre of the storm a more unlikely person. Pro League CEO Dexter Skeene sees a completely different picture.

“The League is at a place where it is strategically positioned to attract investors to come in,” Skeene told Wired868. “We are at a stage where I am excited by the prospects.”

Never fidgeting, lowering his voice or losing eye contact, the 48-year-old CEO made no attempt to feign a bond with the interviewer by leaning forward in his chair. He just smiled.

“In an ideal world, the fixtures would be up,” said Skeene. “That is best practice. But given our circumstances with Jabloteh still trying to raise money and clubs wanting to come in, I think it would be foolhardy to not be as facilitating as possible.

“We want to give the Brent Sanchos and so on every opportunity to come into the League.”

As the League struggles to make an impact on Trinidad and Tobago’s armchair sport fans and clubs fight to stay afloat in the face of sizeable financial challenges, Skeene has his fair share of critics. Some say it is a minor miracle that the League endures and blame Skeene for that fact. It does not seem to have crossed their minds that they should instead be thanking him.

The League is often compared—unfavourably—to longer-established overseas competitions like the English domestic game and even the United States’ Major League Soccer (MLS). Its inability to provide more than a week’s notice for fixtures irks teams and supporters alike while the uncertainty about which clubs will compete next season has created an environment conducive to rumour-mongering and doomsaying.

Eternally optimistic and composed, Skeene sees these negatives merely as growing pains for a young competition.

According to him, the League was forced to delay word on next season’s participating clubs so as to give founding member San Juan Jabloteh every opportunity to find the funding necessary to stay in the competition. Jabloteh, once bankrolled by CLICO, lost its sponsorship deal with Adam’s Construction last season and was inexplicably bypassed for assistance by the Sport Ministry.

Moreover, League Chairman Larry Romany doubles up as the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) head and has only just returned from the London 2012 Olympics. And final word on participation cannot come until Romany convenes a meeting of the various club representatives to review the applications from potential Pro League teams.

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[elan]

I think this fella (Skeene) ah lil to aloof........sometimes it seems he even out of touch with reality.

[Sando]

I must compliment Dexter Skeene for enduring this pain of T&T football League for this long.

But its time to step up to the next level or bring in help, he is stuck.

Every year we hear this and that and the simple things is not being done.

How can you improve a league when the first thing on your agenda should be getting the fans to come out.

Teams need to sell shirts and banners, season tickets, fixtures that we stick to, live updates for foreign base, so they too will adapt a team and visit games when in T&T, take the game closer to the communities, advertise on the radios and try to form a partnership with a few foreign clubs who could also come on preseason in T&T.

These little things will make a hugh differences.

Come on Skeene, you live in the US, you should have learnt a thing or two about marketing.

btw, asked Lasana who the Pro League fighting back ?

Dexter Skeene interviews does be straight forward and very well answered like he prepares for this inadvance, but his action does not back it up. Or maybe he is not getting the support from his staff, what ever the reason, something in not right or someone is not taking this as serious as they should ?

Maybe Larry Romany is the problem ?

2 weeks again and no one could buy a ticket to a game, in other parts of the world tickets would have been sold out already, not even the fixtures are made up and THIS HAPPENS EVERY YEAR.

These simple things we just cant do.

[anbrat]

"But its time to step up to the next level or bring in help, he is stuck".

Sando, perhaps it is simply that the standard of football is unattractive and therefore, regardless of the marketing endeavours, it will still result in nought!

[D.H.W]

Playing the games in a empty 10,000 seater stadium is the main issue. How about bringing the games closer than the community instead of far away. What about getting school children to watch certain games for the week free? I'm sure children get hungry too, set up some food stalls make the cash that way. Is Not rocket science.

[anbrat]

Is Not rocket science.

You make it seem very simple, D.H.W.

[Deeks]

Playing the games in a empty 10,000 seater stadium is the main issue. How about bringing the games closer than the community instead of far away. What about getting school children to watch certain games for the week free? I'm sure children get hungry too, set up some food stalls make the cash that way. Is Not rocket science.

Which community ground you are taking about? Very few comunity grounds are up to standard. Only 2 stadiums are " out of the way" LG in Malabar and Ato. The reason for that is these communities don't have teams. How old in the PFL. Almost 8 yrs and a group can't bring a team to Arima. How far in LG from the community?  It right dey!!! Let's see what Brent and company will do for Central. What happen to Point? why can't they have a team. What happen to Palo Seco? That community should have a team. Why don't Eddie Hart bring out a team. That comunity has had football since the early 70s. Bar-round the field by the main road. Voila, there you have it!

[elan]

Playing the games in a empty 10,000 seater stadium is the main issue. How about bringing the games closer than the community instead of far away. What about getting school children to watch certain games for the week free? I'm sure children get hungry too, set up some food stalls make the cash that way. Is Not rocket science.

Which community ground you are taking about? Very few comunity grounds are up to standard. Only 2 stadiums are " out of the way" LG in Malabar and Ato. The reason for that is these communities don't have teams. How old in the PFL. Almost 8 yrs and a group can't bring a team to Arima. How far in LG from the community?  It right dey!!! Let's see what Brent and company will do for Central. What happen to Point? why can't they have a team. What happen to Palo Seco? That community should have a team. Why don't Eddie Hart bring out a team. That comunity has had football since the early 70s. Bar-round the field by the main road. Voila, there you have it!

Who in that community putting out $400k, just to start?

[Bourbon]

This season, the League will build on that platform by adding $100 all-inclusive viewing areas at Friday games where patrons can enjoy refreshments like corn soup, fries, hot dogs, doubles and, of course, beers.

Attached to each participating club, there will be competing rhythm sections whose transport and appearance fees, Skeene says, the Ministry of Community Development will foot.

Wired868 understands, from separate queries, that the task of booking and sponsoring rhythm sections is set to be split between the Ministry of Community Development, the Ministry of Gender, Youth and Child Development and the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism. Presumably, the original negotiations were completed before Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s decision to super-size her Cabinet.

Fun Fridays for football fans will be balanced by Saturday fixtures for full families that feature face painting, father-and-son door prizes and bouncy castles as well. Instead of the clubs, these initiatives will be put in the hands of Pro League staffers and volunteers.

Somewhat promising. But if I paying 100...I damn well better get to use the Bouncy Castle.