Quality of the product to blame for fans� stay away
Boitumelo Khutsafalo | Friday November 24, 2017 12:58
Although the trend kicked off last season, it continued where it left off this season with only a couple of games experiencing large crowds.
Traditional crowd pullers, Extension Gunners, Sankoyo Bush Bucks, Mochudi Centre Chiefs with the exception of Township Rollers have so far failed to pull crowds, a worrying trend for both the clubs and the Botswana Premier League (BPL). Only Rollers, who have been doing well on the field, have managed to pull crowds. Asked how they have managed to attract their supporters to games, Rollers’ spokesperson, Bafana Pheto said if the product is not packaged properly, people will rather stay home.
He said the difference between them and other teams has been that they were very much focussed on their preparations for the season.
“There has been too much politics in the league and this has negatively affected preparations for other teams hence the standard of play has gone down. There was some kind of hate against us as a club, but we were too focussed to let that affect our preparations,” he said. Pheto said the reason they are doing well even on the field is because when they realised that there was so much hate against them, they encouraged the players to focus on their job and let the management deal with the politics.
“We invested our resources on taking our team for pre-season camps outside the country; that is why we continue to do well,” he said. Pheto said supporters are easily turned off by the continued politics within the local football. “Until and unless we package our product well, we will continue to lose spectators on the field,” he added. Pheto also felt the decline is also caused by constant change of venues at the last minute, which seriously affects the supporters’ planning.
The issue of ticketing also is a major factor according to the Rollers official. “If tickets for a Saturday match are released on Friday, it becomes difficult for the supporters.
The supporters will then have to scramble for those tickets on Saturday before the game. Once they struggle to have easy access to tickets, they will decide to stay home for the next match,” he said. In the past, a match between rivals, Rollers and Chiefs usually attracted a near full house, but that has changed. Since their well-known boardroom wrangle over the Ofentse Nato saga, the match has not lived up to expectations both in terms of quality and attendance.
Gunners have also experienced a decline in attendance and club spokesperson, Edwin Mabapa admitted the current performance could be a contributing factor. “As much as we can still attract those loyal supporters, when we are not doing well and the standard is lower, we do not get as much supporters as we want. Last season we were doing well and everything fell in place with regards to attendance for our games,” he said. However, he said there are other factors that need to be looked into including pricing of tickets from P30 to P40 this season.
He also said facilities appear not to be well taken care of this time around. “You would find that the seats are dirty and the toilets are either not working or there is no water. These are some of the complaints you hear from the supporters,” he said. His suggestion going forward is that there should be some kind of collaboration amongst the sponsors and the clubs where they come up with initiatives that will bring more people to the games. He said at the moment there is a gap between the sponsors and the clubs with everyone doing their own thing.