Premier League valued at P23m
Kabelo Boranabi | Friday March 11, 2016 12:51
Speaking at a workshop the BPL hosted for their Lesotho counterparts at Lekidi Centre yesterday, Mamelodi said the value excludes revenue generated from the gates. The Lesotho football administrators were in Botswana on a benchmarking exercise. Mamelodi said their intention is to double the value of the league to P50 million at the end of next season.
Mobile phone company, beMOBILE sponsors the Premiership to the tune of P30 million over three years. He advised his Lesotho counterparts that they have to make their league attractive enough in order to lure potential sponsors.
“You can’t rest on your laurels. You have to consistently improve the product, it has to be attractive at all times,” he said. He further urged Lesotho to make use of available platforms such as the social media. He said through new media the BPL league has managed to stay closer to the people. “Our website is visited more than 1,400 times a day and on average a person spends close to five minutes. Through new media our product is delivered to the public and in that manner one can approach the corporate world with the figures,” he said. Mamelodi said the re-branding of the league at the start of the season that brought a new feel was a demonstration of the path the league is taking. “We have partnered with a South African company called Repucom Africa that does valuations and media auditory. This has helped us in the sense that we can go back to the sponsor and negotiate a better deal,” he said.
He also said the BPL is in the process of making the league autonomous. He said they have made an appeal to the Botswana Football Association (BFA), the mother body. Mamelodi said, however, they will have to pay some dues to the mother body, as they would become a commercial entity.
“We are in the process to make the elite league together with first division independent. This will be a positive move for us as we will be able to negotiate (sponsorship) deals on our own. I would urge you to also do the same,” he told his Lesotho counterparts. BPL chairperson, Walter Kgabung said the move by their Lesotho counterparts was welcome, as the local league itself has benchmarked from the South African, Kenyan and European leagues before.