Underpinning any successful enterprise is a legal base which will inform how that enterprise will operate in a regulatory environment, and in particular the nature and extent to which it will interface with public authorities and systems. Critical of which are government, licensing agencies and tax regimes.

The Business of Sport is no different. It must have a legal substratum, framework and overlay if the objectives are to be facilitated and ultimately achieved. In other words, you have to get your contractual arrangements with technocrats, sponsors, investors and indeed government right in order to enjoy the full benefits of the value of talent and expertise.

Sport in Jamaica is a business and has become an industry with the recognition that if we approach matters with savvy and in a structured way, the industry can become an economic driver and a social transformer.

With the advent of arguably the phenomenon of Usain Bolt, not only as an athlete but as a brand, the focus has changed and the rules and the game itself have changed in recognition that we are no longer doing business “in a patty shop” but in an enterprise where not only patty and meat loaves are sold but breakfast, lunch and dinner are being served to satisfy a discriminating and growing market.

Samuda & Johnson understands the dynamic of change very well. We understand and more so believe in Jamaica’s talent and we appreciate that talent must be rewarded in a just and equitable way. The development of the club system in various sport in Jamaica, the advent of management which not only constitutes the coaches but now entails your marketer, publicist, accountant, attorney-at-law and manager as well as the influx of sponsorship dollars of all types clearly indicate that sport has become big business; and has now the fundamental elements of being an industry.

It will now take the vision of all stakeholders to develop policies and rules of industry which are enabling and which will validate the reservoir of talent that exists in Jamaica.

Sport arguably has now become to Jamaica much more than sun, sea and sand.