Ascension Super League offers financial equity

The League, a one-round af­fair that will see the ac­tion go­ing down to De­cem­ber 15, is be­ing spon­sored by As­cen­sion and it will pro­vide fi­nan­cial eq­ui­ty for all par­tic­i­pat­ing clubs.

Look Loy in out­lin­ing some of the ben­e­fits to be gained by his com­pe­ti­tion, said he pro­posed that a $100,000 amount to be used for prizes be split eq­ui­tably among all par­tic­i­pat­ing teams, so that the last-place team will walk away with $1100, with $2200 for the 12th-place team, $3300 for 11th-place club, and go­ing all the way up to the win­ner which will re­ceive a hand­some $14, 000 and tro­phy.

Look Loy promised that should his league re­ceive an­oth­er spon­sor then the clubs will stand to get more mon­ey.

He told the me­dia their de­ci­sion to share the prizes the way they have, was apt, as it will be used to show ap­pre­ci­a­tion to their loy­al mem­bers who were be­ing pur­sued by oth­er leagues and tour­na­ments, but have stayed with the su­per league.

In ad­di­tion to the cash in­cen­tives, the su­per league will of­fer cash bonus­es of $1, 000 for teams that win a match. How­ev­er, if the match is drawn, then the teams will split the bonus $500 each.

Ac­cord­ing to Look Loy, there will al­so be a trans­porta­tion fee with a max­i­mum lim­it of $15 00 for trav­el­ling teams. For short­er dis­tances, how­ev­er, such as teams in the east trav­el­ling to and from match­es, they will get an $800 fee.

There will al­so be a $2, 000 cash in­cen­tive for the best goal­keep­er, the play­er scor­ing the most goals (gold­en boot award) and for the most valu­able play­er of the tour­na­ment.

How­ev­er, Look Loy was quick to note that par­tic­i­pat­ing clubs will have to pay a reg­is­tra­tion fee of $1, 000. The com­po­si­tion of the su­per league was re­duced over the years due main­ly to the in­abil­i­ty of some clubs to be com­pli­ant, a bye-law of the TTSL that sees in­ac­tive mem­bers for two con­sec­u­tive be­ing thrown out, and clubs that fail to make the reg­is­tra­tion dead­line be­ing thrown out.

As­cen­sion and Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers man­ag­er Richard Fer­gu­son said their en­try in­to lo­cal foot­ball had been care­ful­ly planned.

He told the gath­er­ing that his or­gan­i­sa­tion, back in 2017 did a fea­si­bil­i­ty study, pro­jec­tions on cash flows etc and had dis­cov­ered that there was an un­tapped mar­ket.

He is pre­dict­ing that with­in the next three years, they will be­gin to break even be­fore prof­its will be­gin to flow.

On his fa­cil­i­ty alone, Fer­gu­son said, they have spent over $7 mil­lion, not­ing that by the time they are fin­ished build­ing a road, a stage and car park etc, that amount will climb to about $10 mil­lion. From the Ter­minix La Ho­pr­quet­ta Rangers' pru­dent busi­ness mod­el, Fer­gu­son ex­plained that they will re­cov­er all the monies spent to date.

Af­ter 11 match­es of the re­cent As­cen­sion In­vi­ta­tion­al Foot­ball League alone, Ter­minix Rangers re­cov­ered over

$525,000 in to­tal, which saw the team make over $55,000 per game.

Fer­gu­son urges clubs to mar­ry the sport, which is en­ter­tain­ment, with the lo­cal cul­ture as a means of in­creas­ing gate re­ceipts and sup­port.

RELATED NEWS

Terminix Super League kicks off this weekend.
By Joel Bailey (Newsday).

THE 2019 edition of the Terminix Super League will kick off this weekend with Match Day One action.

Reigning champs FC Santa Rosa will square off against RSSR FC in the opening match on Saturday, from 4 pm, at the Arima Velodrome, and Metal X Erin FC will host Club Sando Uprising Youths at the Erin Recreation Ground from 6.30 pm.

Two games will take place from 7 pm – UTT entertaining Petit Valley/Diego Martin United at the UTT O’Meara campus, Arima and Matura ReUnited against Queen’s Park at the Matura Recreation Ground.

On Sunday, San Fernando Giants will tackle Police, at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium Training Field, from 3.30 pm, while Prisons Service will host Bethel United, at the YTC Ground, Arouca from 4 pm. Guaya United will be on a bye.

The 2019 season, which will run until December 15, was launched yesterday, at the Phase Two La Horquetta Recreation Ground, Arima, with Super League president Keith Look Loy and Terminix director Richard Ferguson addressing the media.

“It’s going to be a one-round season because of events that has occasioned this,” said Look Loy, referencing to the failed T League venture, which would have been a combination of Pro League and Super League teams.

“We went searching for sponsorship,” he continued. “We received a positive response from Ferguson who has filled a huge void in our club football in 2019. He stepped in to sponsor the Ascension football tournament and he immediately agreed to become the title sponsor of the 2019 Super League.

“We have sponsorship from Raymond Tim Kee and Investments, and we have one other sponsor, who shall remain nameless, who have come on board,” Look Loy said. “This is the first time that the Super League will be offering monies (in three years).”

Ferguson said, “This is our first year of sponsoring the football league and it will definitely not be the last. We’re hoping to increase our sponsorship, get more involved in television (and) more exposure for players, to get a higher calibre of TT players.”

With regards to prize monies for the 13 participating teams, Look Loy said, “We have a match bonus of $1,000 if your club win a match, if the match is drawn the two clubs get $500. We are giving a $2,000 prize to the MVP (Most Valuable Player), the best goalkeeper and the golden boot.

“We have a commitment for $100,000 in prize monies,” he added. “Everybody plays and if any finances are generated, then it should be paid equitably. The last team should get $1,100 and the first place team should get $14,000.”

Look Loy listed a few clubs who chose not to participate in the Super League this season – 1976 Phoenix FC, Harlem Strikers, Marabella Family Crisis Centre and Cunupia FC.

“They sat in the meeting where we discussed details of the league to launch itself on Saturday as well as the incentives that are on offer,” said Look Loy. “They were given a deadline and chose not to participate.”

He continued, “There are those that cannot participate because of TTFA membership non-compliance.”

Local cable network TTEN, in conjunction with Island Sports Network and TV6, will be showing matches live and/or delayed.