Yes; we can host more and bigger sporting events

Thuso Palai | Wednesday April 2, 2014 17:38

Some countries have enhanced their profile by hosting major international sporting events. Some Cities are only known because of the sporting events that they have hosted. How many people knew about Sochi before the recent Winter Olympics? As a country, Botswana should also strive to host as many sporting events as possible, as they can bring us together as a nation and can put our country, our capabilities and prowess in the spotlight.

We are just over 50 days away from hosting the Africa Youth Championships, dubbed Gaborone 2014. This is an event that will attract a lot of people to the country. This event will most probably have a lot of spin offs into the economy, including the tourism, hospitality, catering and transport sector among others.  People will spend money here and put something into our economy. While sport brings together people to rally behind their sporting teams, the visitors will get to know about and appreciate what Botswana has to offer. Through hosting such major sporting events, we can sell our country.

Hosting major international events increases the country’s visibility and profiles the country. People the world over get to know about Botswana through such events and we should as much as possible strive to host more. I have always advocated for hosting of major events, and a few years ago I was disappointed when government back tracked on plans to bid for AFCON. Well; we don’t need a lot of stadiums to host such a tournament. Our infrastructure has improved since then and I think we are now ready to host events of such a magnitude. Yes, we will have challenges just like any other host country, but I’m confident that we can pull it off. I’m confident that we have facilities and capabilities as a country to some international events.

There are some other notable sporting events that we will host in the near future and this augurs well for our country. For starters people will appreciate and get to know about Botswana. They will visit our country and invest in our economy. Later this year, we will host the COSAFA senior Championships.  Football is a major crowd puller and all COSAFA teams will be in Botswana. This will be a litmus test as it will gauge our readiness to host such an event like the Africa Nations Cup, which is even bigger and attracts even more internationals.

Sport is in most cases a unifier. We can use sport to show our sense of togetherness and pride in our country. As much as we will revel in the sporting activity, we will come together as a nation. Who can ever forget when we hosted the infamous ‘A Basimane ba kgwathe’ U17 Africa Championships in the late 1990’s. Who can ever forget the excitement then? That is what we long for and can get with us hosting bigger events. I’m of the view that we have the infrastructure, capable minds and the vigour to organise and host bigger events.

We do not necessarily have to have flashy venues, but we can do with those that we have. Other countries have hosted major sporting events with less than what we have. The onus is now on us as a nation to be ambitious and bid for some of the events. Obviously we cannot host the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup now, but there are other events we can hosts.