Concern over poor Top 8 turnout
Boitumelo Khutsafalo | Thursday November 10, 2016 15:38
Speaking at a press briefing yesterday LOC chairperson, Simon Mmipi said the numbers of people attending matches this season has been disappointingly down.
He said LOC together with the sponsors, Mascom are equally concerned with the situation and hope it will improve this weekend. “Maybe we have not been engaging the media as stakeholders as much as we should have done. That is why we have called this press briefing to try and close those gaps. We feel that there is not much hype like in the previous seasons,” he said.
His concerns were equally shared by acting Botswana Premier League (BPL) chief executive officer (CEO), Thabo Ntshinogang who said that they hope the new system of selling tickets would be successful eventually.
He said in future they will not allow the sale of tickets at the gates. This is for security reasons as it would avoid stampede at the gates, he said.
“All this is done for the good of football and the supporters. We have recently also tried to switch some games to late afternoon because of excessive heat,” Ntshinongang said. There have been complaints from supporters over the effectiveness of the new format of selling tickets through a computerised system, but the BPL CEO insists it is a good system compared to the previous one. He said they opted for this system after the BPL board suggested that they find other ways of selling tickets to try and curb wastage and prevent stampedes at the gates.
Miscellaneous and Orapa United kickoff this weekend’s action in Serowe with the two sides currently tied at 0-0.
BDF XI will then take Gaborone United (GU) on Saturday before Jwaneng Galaxy hosts Mochudi Centre Chiefs on Sunday. Township Rollers and Police XI lock horns on Monday at the National Stadium.