Sports figures angry over cash for overseas sponsorships

When a young Cayman Islands national team cyclist showed up to compete at an event in the UK, he was surprised to see some of his fellow riders flying the Cayman flag.

The athlete, who had bought a second-hand bike to race for Cayman, enquired about the girls wearing custom cycling gear with the Cayman Islands logo and the Sir Turtle insignia. He liked the jerseys and wondered if he might be able to buy one.

But he soon learned that the girls were part of a European under-23 development team that was apparently being sponsored by the Cayman government. 

The exact financial contribution from the Cayman government budget, if any, to the Torelli European Cycling Team is not clear. Details were not included in an FOI response to the Cayman Compass which asked for information on all of the Department of Tourism’s sponsorship agreements. The DoT has not responded to new questions from the Compass about this and other partnerships, advertised online and on social media.

The FOI response, which revealed more than $500,000 in sponsorship to UK sports teams, including some with no fan base and limited media coverage, was heavily redacted and is currently under appeal with the ombudsman.

In general, the sponsorship agreements ranged from around $5,000-a-year up to $50,000-a-year.

It now seems that additional deals, including partnerships with Torelli and with Worcester rugby team in the UK, were omitted from the response.

The revelations from our report – which included details of a $10,000-a-year sponsorship of an amateur field hockey team that the DOT’s UK regional manager plays for – have stoked anger and resentment among sports leaders in Cayman.

Craig Merren, a former Olympic cyclist, cycle shop owner and a former president of the Cayman Islands Cycling Association, said he was stunned at the amount of money going to amateur athletes in other countries.

“If you want to advertise Cayman, put up a sign on the back of a double-decker bus. If you want to sponsor athletes, that money should go towards developing young Caymanians.”

Tourism leaders say the budgets for sponsorships and for sports development are separate and have different goals.

But questions are being asked about the wisdom of spending cash on overseas teams – especially junior or amateur squads with no media profile.

Merren said he had become aware of the DoT’s sponsorship of the European cycling team after the story was relayed to him by a promising young cyclist competing in England.

“Here is a Cayman Islands National cyclist who is racing on a second-hand bike he bought in the UK and here is this developing cycling team made up of young women from UK, Scotland, Ireland, France, Holland and other countries with £6-8k racing bicycles, and all decked out with top cycling gear with Cayman Islands as a sponsor. What is going on?”

He said he had raised the issue with government officials after learning about it early last year but had received no response.

Merren said he and other sports leaders and supporters of Cayman youth frequently dug into their own pockets to help the island’s athletes participate overseas.

“When I got the news, I was actually shocked that Cayman Islands government was sponsoring sporting teams across Europe and here we are in Cayman struggling to find funding for bikes wheels, parts, kits, bike boxes (for travelling) and some hope from CI sports ministry,” he said.

“I started to wonder where they went wrong. Haven’t they heard of the Cayman Islands Cycling Association?”

He said he only became aware of the scale of the sponsorship agreements, beyond cycling, when he saw the Compass article last week.

He urged government to “stop this right now”, arguing that there would be very little return on investment from a shirt sponsorship with a developing cycling team.

‘Portsmouth cash could have gone on field upgrades’

Among the details revealed by the Compass FOI were agreements worth more than $100,000 for Gloucestershire County Cricket Club and a $125,000 deal to sponsor the Milton End at UK League One side Portsmouth FC’s Fratton Park stadium.

Alfredo Whittaker, president of the Cayman Islands Football Association, said he was disappointed that money was going overseas while the local association has not received any financing from the current government.

He said the money would have been better spent – from a sports and tourism perspective – if it had been used to upgrade the islands’ facilities.

Whittaker said there were tournaments being held all over the Caribbean that would be great sports tourism events during the islands’ low season.

Right now, Cayman does not have the fields, the stadiums or the facilities to qualify as a host. He said upgrades were needed at Ed Bush stadium in West Bay and at the Annex in George Town, in particular, to allow them to host international fixtures.

“If the DoT were to take that 100k and use it to bring our stadiums up to standard, we could bring these tournaments to Cayman in our slow season. That would benefit everyone – hotels, transport companies, restaurants. – everyone,” he said.

Pre-season Pompey fixture discussed

Whittaker also confirmed that discussions had taken place for Portsmouth to travel to Cayman for a pre-season game.

But he said the investment that would have been required to meet their demands was more than CIFA could commit to.

“I was told that they would be inviting Portsmouth to come to Cayman and have a training camp and to play one game against our senior men’s team.”

But he said the demands – including guarantees of the quality of the field, access to specific gym equipment at their hotel and to video analysis technology – were impossible to meet.

“I wouldn’t put CIFA through those kind of expenses for one game,” he said.

“We had a meeting and a couple of emails back and forth and then I heard nothing more.”

Sports Minister Bernie Bush did not respond to requests for comment.

Portsmouth FC did not respond to our questions on the matter and the details of the sponsorship agreement were redacted form the Department of Tourism’s FOI response.

Minister Bryan: ‘Tourism sponsorships promote destination’

Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan said the aim of the department’s sponsorships was to achieve a return on investment for Cayman as a destination.

He said marketing – through radio, social media and partnerships with sports teams and brands – aimed to enhance Cayman’s stature as a destination in key markets with the ultimate goal of driving tourism to the islands. That budget and that outcome, he said, is separate and distinct from governments funding for local sports associations,

“I think sometimes there is a misunderstanding of how marketing works as opposed to sponsorship of our local clubs. One is designed to encourage development of sport and our athletes, while marketing for tourism focusses on exposure in our core market.

“There’s a different end result in mind,” he said,

He said there was sometimes opportunity for collaboration – when those two goals coincided. The Department of Tourism sponsored Cayman golfer Aaron Jarvis, for example, when he represented the island at the US Masters and other international competitions last year.

Asked about the funds that have gone to amateur teams in the UK, including rugby and field hockey teams with no fans or media coverage, Bryan said those types of expenditures could still represent value for money as “low stakes investments”.

The Department of Tourism has said it was previously unaware of links between its UK and Europe Regional Manager Adrian White and the Old Cranleighan hockey team, which received around $10,000-a-year for the past three years from the DoT.

Bryan said, “Accountability is very important to me and we are taking this matter very seriously. We are reviewing the matter and I can’t add much more than that at this stage.”

The DoT did not respond to questions about White’s future or about the additional sponsorships left out of the FOI response.