A new strategic marketing and brand management plan has been launched by the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) to help it achieve its target of winning at least 10 gold medals by 2024.
The TTOC claims it is adopting an entrepreneurial, vibrant and dynamic market driven, new business development approach to revenue generation for its programmes and projects.
In an effort to support the marketing plan and vision, the TTOC has set up an in-house marketing department that will handle its marketing, branding, new business and commercial development, merchandising and licensing programme.
The mandate of the TTOC marketing department is to break down barriers with new ideas and approaches to help it achieve its goal of 10 Olympic and Paralympic gold medals by 2024.
The scale of the the challenge can be seen by the fact that since making its Olympic debut at London 1948, Trinidad and Tobago have won only two gold medals, thanks to Hasely Crawford in the 100 metres at Monteal 1976 and Keshorn Walcott in the javelin at London 2012.
The country has never won a medal in the Paralympics, having made their debut in 1984 and appeared at Seoul in 1988 before a 24-year absence until they returned at London 2012, sending a competitor in athletics and another in swimming.
"As an organisation we must always strive to celebrate and embrace disruptive thinking and challenge conventional wisdom," said TTOC President Brian Lewis.
"This department will drive the TTOC's business and commercial agenda, growth and value strategy.
"We are at a critical juncture, and it is of even greater importance for us to achieve financial independence and strength for the TTOC while at the same time maintaining the TTOC's identity and not compromising its core Olympic values and ideals."
The TTOC intends to put in place the required legal checks and balances for Rio 2016 to protect its Olympic franchise, including the TTOC, the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Team and the legitimate TTOC Olympic sponsors and partners, from opportunistic marketing and ambushers, it has warned.
In highlighting the issue, Lewis stressed that the TTOC has to ensure that cash flows into, not out of its coffers so that the organisation can support not only athletes, but key projects and programmes that aim to develop sport in Trinidad and Tobago.
"It's one thing to understand what your brand stands for but it matters not unless you protect your brand," said Lewis.
"Defending your rights and what you stand for is central to what the Olympic Movement is all about.
"Ambush marketing is not a game.
"It's a serious issue that can undermine the TTOC's efforts to fund its 10 gold medals by the year 2024, Athlete Welfare and Preparation programme and other programmes such as women in sport and sport for all."
Exclusivity is deemed the cornerstone of the Olympic Movement's marketing programmes, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and National Olympic Committees providing partners with one of the highest levels of protection of any major sports property.
In keeping with this, the TTOC will look to take all the necessary advertising and legal measures to educate the public on who the TTOC and TTO Olympic Team sponsors are, and take steps to protect its right and those of its partners, it has promised. 
Under the IOC Olympic Charter, the TTOC has sole and exclusive authority for the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Team, Olympic Movement and Olympic franchise in the jurisdiction of Trinidad and Tobago.
"We have to protect our sponsors and partners promotional rights," added Lewis.
"We will not be turning a blind eye.
"At this time we want to assure our sponsors and partners that our Olympic team will be protected by the TTOC.
"At the TTOC we have a duty, obligation and responsibility to develop and use the Olympic brand to its full potential.
"It's something we take quite seriously, and our in-house marketing department will form a key part of this."
Turning a blind eye
ON MAY 27th an early-dawn raid at a posh Swiss hotel brought nine bigwigs from FIFA, football’s international governing body, into custody for allegations of corruption. After years when the game’s leaders managed to avoid any consequences for their unsavoury mismanagement, fans around the world cheered the round-up as a first step towards cleaning up the sport. But the American indictment that put these seemingly untouchable fat cats in the dock had nothing to do with FIFA’s best-known dirty laundry, such as the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. Instead, it focused entirely on wrongdoing by officials in the Americas, and in particular on CONCACAF, one of the relative weaklings among FIFA’s six constituent continental federations, which includes North and Central America and the Caribbean. The two biggest fish, Jeffrey Webb and Austin “Jack” Warner (pictured)—the current CONCACAF president and his predecessor—hail from two of the smallest countries in the world, the Cayman Islands and Trinidad and Tobago.
Given CONCACAF’s relatively modest stature, the American prosecutors’ focus on the federation is striking. They say that further investigations are still underway, and it would be no surprise if they subsequently reveal additional targets—though any FIFA officials with skeletons in their closets who escaped the first round of arrests will now presumably take extra care to review extradition agreements before they travel. If the dragnet does not wind up extending beyond this group, the simplest explanation would be that the Justice Department took the greatest interest in its local federation. (There is one American among the defendants, Charles “Chuck” Blazer, who has already pleaded guilty.) Another potential reason is that illicit money flows from the region Americans once condescendingly called their “backyard” are more likely to pass through the United States’ financial system—one of the grounds on which the Justice Department claimed jurisdiction—than are similar payments originating from Europe, Asia or Africa. The third theory is that the lords of Caribbean football simply happened to be sloppier in covering up their tracks than their counterparts abroad.
Football is a relative newcomer to the Caribbean sporting scene. Historically, its Anglophone islands have focused on cricket—the “Windies” team dominated much of the 1980s—while the Spanish-speaking countries, such as Cuba and the Dominican Republic, preferred baseball. But in recent years the world’s favourite game has made significant inroads. That owes largely to globalisation, as the colonial past of the British Commonwealth islands fades further into the rearview mirror. But CONCACAF itself has also played an important role.
The federation is an ungainly beast, consisting of two giants (the United States and Mexico) alongside Canada, a dozen smallish countries and 26 tiny Caribbean nations with populations of less than a million. Its smallest member, the British overseas territory of Montserrat, has just 5,000 people and a bad-tempered volcano. Just as in the UN General Assembly, each country gets one vote regardless of its size. As a result, the Caribbean bloc has banded together to out-vote its larger neighbours and secure a comfortably outsize share of the federation’s budget.
For over two decades, Mr Warner was both the architect and the operations manager of this redistributive scheme, to the benefit of both Caribbean footballing nations and, apparently, himself. By controlling so many votes in both CONCACAF and FIFA, he made himself a power broker with the ability to bestow or withhold the organisations’ funds largely as he saw fit. That in turn enabled him to prop up small-island officials when they faced grass-roots rebellions, ensuring their loyalty. Thanks to his ability to direct the largesse in his native Trinidad and Tobago and the prominent public role his perch offered, he also became involved in politics: he once chaired the United National Congress, the current ruling party, and served as minister of works and transport after being elected to Parliament in 2010 by a landslide.
Mr Warner hit his first speed bump in May 2011, following a Caribbean football meeting in Trinidad ahead of FIFA’s presidential election that was organised to support the challenger, Mohammed bin Hamman of Qatar. Envelopes each containing $40,000 in banknotes were distributed at the event; a Bahamian delegate photographed the money, and complained of the “insult” to the Caribbean. Mr Warner promptly resigned from his football-related posts, which forestalled a FIFA inquiry into his actions; 32 others either also resigned or were warned, reprimanded, fined or banned for varying periods. An investigation by the Trinidadian police went nowhere.
Mr Warner’s exit from football had little effect on his political fortunes at first. He was named Trinidad and Tobago’s minister of national security well after the envelopes scandal broke—though he later had to resign following a CONCACAF enquiry into the ownership of a sports complex, which found that using a “balance of probabilities” standard, he had committed fraud and misappropriated funds. Nonetheless, he quickly bounced back by resigning from Parliament, forming a new party, and winning his seat back in the subsequent by-election, this time with 69% of the vote.
It remains an open question whether even the American indictment can ensnare him. He did spend the night of May 27th in Port of Spain’s forbidding Frederick Street prison because his bail, though agreed to, was not yet paid. But he forcefully maintains his innocence, and can fight his extradition all the way to the Privy Council in London, which remains Trinidad and Tobago’s final court of appeal. Two local business figures, Steve Ferguson and Ishwar Galbaransingh, have successfully resisted extradition to America since 2005; they have spent a lot of money on lawyers, but remain free.
Trinidad and Tobago’s parliament will dissolve next month, with a general election expected in September. At the very least Mr Warner is likely to lose his seat. But he still has supporters who see him as the man who made the small islands a powerful force in world football, and who spruced up the neighbourhood sports ground. If the money to do that was bilked from foreigners, all the better. In this view, America’s indictments are simply a politically motivated plot, perhaps to confound Russia’s 2018 World Cup, or avenge the failed American bid to play host in 2022. The Caribbean public is well accustomed to patronage networks. Given the region’s demonstrated apathy towards corruption and incompetence in general, fans are highly unlikely to return their affections to cricket in protest against a bit of palm-greasing.
Minister surprised at NAAA blank by stadium officials
Sports Minister Brent Sancho says he was unaware that a concert booking accepted by the facilities management unit at the Hasely Crawford Stadium (HCS) in Woodbrook forced officials of the National Association of Athletics Administration (NAAA) to reschedule its calendar of championship events originally scheduled to start last weekend.
Redemption II was the name of the concert held at the popular sporting facility which reportedly scuppered pre-planned activities by the national sporting body.
The NGC/NAAA Junior Championships was advertised to take place on May 30.
Sancho told the T&T Guardian he was unaware of any such development and expressed surprise, citing that the NAAA executive didn’t not contact him, at least, in an effort to intervene.
The NAAA issued a media release on May 18, which stated the HCS Grounds was no longer available for its planned meet last Saturday.
A social media firestorm consequently erupted with opponents for and against the staging of the concert. Many wanted to know if the HCS was a dedicated sporting facility or a concert hall.
This, citing that national track and field meets were taking place in preparation for international event such as the Pan Am Games, World Championships scheduled to take place over the next two months.
Track and field events affected owing to the concert booking included the NGC/NAAA Junior Championships; NGC/NAAA Juvenile Championships and the NGC/NAAA Combined Events Championships, together with the Falcons Invitational. All were reportedly pushed back by one week.
These events will take place this June along with the Sagicor/NGC Open Championships on the weekend of 26-28.
Contacted, Ephraim Serrette, president of the NAAA said this was not the first time the NAAA calendar of events was overlooked by the Stadium management for a non-sport related activity.
“Last year, we used the football tunnel as the call room and warm up centre for the athletes. Track and field is an event that takes place inside and outside. Somehow, someone of the Stadium management team does not recognise that. It’s a little difficult for the athletes because of that. We appreciate that we do not have to pay for use of the Stadium and these events (concerts) are the events that people pay for use of the Stadium,” he said.
Serrette added, “We plan very early. We always do. We want to work with everyone, but they have to understand that track and field is inside and outside the Stadium. We book it (the Stadium) at the end of September early October every year. Track and field doesn’t win administration of the year by guess. Track and field didn’t get $12 million from a sponsor (NGC) for three years, by guess.”
Lewis says Ministry, Sportt must do more for track and field
TTOC president Brian Lewis has called into question the willingness and commitment of the Ministry of Sports and the Sports Company of T&T (SporTT) to validate legitimate efforts by the National Association of Athletics Administrations (NAAA) and its corporate partners to promote the growth and sustainability of track and field in T&T.
Speaking at Wednesday’s launch of the NAAAs Championship Month held at the Radisson Hotel on Wrightson Road in Port-of-Spain, Lewis underscored the power of track and field to continue making positive differences in T&T and wondered why the ministry and SporTT officials were usually absent when listed on the programme to speak. “Given the importance of track and field to sport in T&T, I always find it a bit disquieting that on a number of occasions when I come to speak at this all important launch, I always end up speaking last when on the programme, I see SporTT and the Ministry of Sports is supposed to speak after the president of the TTOC. But that invariably doesn’t happen. And I think it would be remiss of me not to make the observation, in a very constructive way. Given the importance of track and field and the national senior championships and the events that track and field and the NAAA and their sponsors and partners would put on during the month of June, I think that it would have been most apt to have a representative here from SporTT and the Ministry of Sport,” Lewis said.
He added, “I know that we are all exceedingly busy, but if we are involved in sport, we must give the respect and the acknowledgement that is due, not only to NAAA, not only to the athletes of track and field, but also and most importantly to the sponsors and partners who have given a commitment to support sport through track and field. I think it is important that we all work together in sport, to develop sport and to put a positive image on sport and we need to encourage the sponsors. This is a very important event and it needs the support of key stakeholders such as the TTOC, the Ministry and SporTT.” State owned National Gas Company (NGC), its subsidiary Phoenix Park Gas Processors Limited, insurer Sagicor and Blue Waters have partnered with the NAAA for the NGC/NAAA Junior Championships (June 6-7); NGC/NAAA Juvenile Championships (13-14); NGC/NAAA Combined Events Championships (20-21) NGC/ Sagicor Open Championships (26-28). The Hasely Crawford Stadium in Woodbrook is the venue for all the events listed.
Bovell resumes Pan Am, World Champs prep
First Citizens ‘Sportsman of the Year’, George Bovell will resume his build-up to next month’s Pan American Games in Canada and the FINA World Aquatic Championship in Kazan a month later, when he competes at the Tropheo Citta in Rome Italy, over the next two days.
The three-time reigning Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games 50 metres freestyle champion and multiple Pan American Games medallists, Bovell will compete in both the men’s 50m freestyle and 100m freestyle events.
Speaking ahead of the meet, Bovell said his main aim in the 50m freestyle, his pet, event will be to lower his time down to 22.2, an improvement on his 22.46 clocking at the Belgian Open Swimming Championship last month which was only good enough for fifth spot.
After skipping the 100m freestyle in Belgian, the Italian-based T&T Olympic bronze medal winner says he will return to swimming the event as he wants to work on his easy speed and stamina for the last few metres of the 50m event.
Last month at the Belgian Open Swimming Championship, Bovell picked up two silver medals at the Olympic Swimming Pool, Wezenberg, Antwerp.
The 31-year-old Bovell got his first silver of the meet when he set a national record in the 50m breaststroke in 27.65 to trail Greek swimmer Loannis Karpouzlis (27.61) with Belgium’s Jonas Coreelman took third in 28.75.
The top T&T swimmer returned to the pool a day later and picked up silver in the 50m backstroke in 25.70 seconds behind his AND clubmate, Francois Heersbrandt who won in 25.50 seconds while Greec’ Michail Kondizas took bronze in 25.81.
Following the meet he is expected to head to Y40 pool Padova where he has been invited for his first free diving meeting.
At that event, Bovell says he intends to swim down to 40m and back up while holding his breath, and with no fins.
He added, “This will be something that will no doubt help me push the limits of my swimming racing as well”.
He will also compete at the Sette Colli also in Rome (June 12-14) followed by Trofeo Rossini (June 19-21), Treviso Swim Cup (June 26-27) and French Open Championship in Vichy (July 4-5).
Tim Kee wants four more years
...as he aims to continue TTFA strategic reform
Radical changes to the management of local football are underway says Raymond Tim Kee, president of the T&T Football Association (TTFA).
Even as his term of office comes to an end in June after four years in office, he has offered himself for re-election to the post, Tim Kee was talking tough on the issue of strategic reform.
He said gone were the days when practitioners were installed in key positions because they simply knew the sport. The TTFA head did not say if this was among the suite of constitutional reforms a special committee of the TTFA was presently reviewing.
In order for football in T&T to become a major revenue earner and as a consequence ensure the TTFA achieved self-sufficiency, he said, business professionals needed to be enlisted by the football body.
This said the TTFA head, was one sure way to win the confidence of the private sector about the tremendous returns to be had from this type of investment.
Speaking at the TTFA 2014 Awards held at the VIP Lounge of the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Woodbrook, Tim Kee said, “The TTFA is undergoing change management exercises which seems go against the thread of what has become habit or natural, as you would say, because our focus is a new one and a different one. Our focus is on good governance with emphasis on transparency and accountability. And as time progresses, we are going to see emerging some new faces, some different faces, many of whom may not have ever played football; probably never bounced a ball.”
He added, “I came out of the business sector and I recognised by looking and observing that football is a product. But the people who market and sell products are the business people, not practitioners in the craft that produce the product. So Mr Hart (Stephen) and his team and other members of the technical staff, it is their business to produce the product on the field and they are accountable to those who sit, not in their ivory towers, but those fairly comfortable rooms–air conditioned rooms–who at times would complain of heat because of challenges. So, we expect a different product. We expect a different behaviour. We expect different norms. Football as anything else depends on economics.”
Turning his attention to the development of the sport, Tim Kee cited the level of capital that went local governing bodies for the sport in Concacaf.
While the Mexican Football Association had an annual budget of US$100 million, he said, the United States Football Association got an allocation of US$75 million.
“You know what our own is? Five million and we struggle to make it. And yet, we go out and produce a quality of that product that is comparable to some of those other countries who are better endowed financially and who enjoy the financial support from so many different corporate citizens,” he said.
Tim Kee added, “So when people say that ‘God is a Trini’, I am inclined to believe that sometimes, because against all odds, we still prevail and not only prevail, prevail with distinction. Our commitment is that qualifying for World Cup would not be a flash-in-the-pan anymore. We intend to pursue qualification for World cup from 2018 onwards.”