First Division South acts after meagre gate takings
| Friday June 26, 2015 18:02
This comes after the league revealed that it had raised only P1, 300 in gate takings from all the 264 games throughout season.
FDSL treasurer Thebetsile Mokgwa told Mmegi Sport that they would introduce the scheme next season with the intention to improve gate takings. “All the teams will be given a booklet and after each and every game they will be compelled to submit the returns,” he explained.
Mokgwa also said that this season, the FDSL committee had failed to attend all the games, which was a challenge as no one was there to account for all the money raised from gate takings. He was however quick to admit that the issue of gate takings had become quite problematic.
“Since we cannot attend all the games, some of the teams said they didn’t make money from the gate takings because there was no gate taking collection sheet,” he said.
Mokgwa said the teams submitted small amounts as proceeds from the gates, adding that they couldn’t do anything about it because the arrangement was that they should get five percent from whatever sum was made from gate takings.
He noted that the introduction of the new scheme, teams would be responsible for gate takings in some instances where FDS officials are not present.
“With the new scheme, teams and officials would then take control of the collector sheet.”
He said that since they could not attend all the games, they relied on the match officials but complained they sometimes lost large sums of money after sending their officials to officiate in far away places like Gantsi. “It’s costly for us considering the fact that we only take five percent from the gate takings,” he said. He added that it is difficult for them but they would try by all means to ensure accountability like in the Premier league.
Mokgwa emphasised that it is going to be a costly exercise for them to produce match tickets but they would go ahead with the development. Among other pending improvements, Mokgwa said they have put issues concerning gate takings before the FDS clubs.
“We want the money to be increased from P15 to P20. We propose that the percentage we get be increased from five to 10 percent,” he said. He however indicated the clubs were still skeptical about the proposition. The issues will be resolved at their next meeting on July 19, 2015.