One-by-one, fans disappear from the stands
Staff Writer | Wednesday November 22, 2017 17:46
Although many had attributed last season’s dwindling numbers to the chaos that characterised the 2015/2016 season, it is not clear what exactly leads to the current situation with only log leaders, Township Rollers matches attracting high turnout.
The 2015/2016 season saw the season being extended following the Ofentse Nato saga. By the time the matter finally settled and champions confirmed, the pre-season for the following season had already kicked off.
However, despite a chaos-free 2016/2017 season, with an average of nine games played, the league continues to lose numbers, a worrying trend for the clubs, sponsors and the Botswana Premier League (BPL).
Many factors have been cited as the causes for the low turnout with most common being that the continued postponement of the league start drained out the interest from the supporters. The start of the season was postponed twice as both the BPL and the sponsor, the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) took sometime to conclude their new deal.
However, there is also a common thinking amongst football people that the standard of football displayed in the league has drastically dropped compared to the previous seasons.
Several football pundits including the Zebras coach, David Bright recently expressed their worry at the falling standards in the league.
The quality of display has been blamed by other pundits as the reason Botswana has reduced the export of players abroad compared to the previous years.
Currently, only Thabang Sesinyi and Mpho Kgaswane are playing regularly at their respective teams in South Africa. Others however believe there is not much competition in the league with Rollers having opened an eight-point gap so far in the season.
The issue of venues also appears to have an effect on the turnout as fixtures change many times. With the National Stadium currently closed for Premier League action, even Gaborone derbies have been moved to outside the city.
The constant changing of fixtures including the Rollers/Orapa United match seemed to have irked many supporters. The match was originally scheduled to take place last Saturday but was postponed to Monday night in Molepolole.
It was then moved again to Lobatse the same day. The National Stadium is currently at the centre of a branding war between cellular network providers, Mascom Wireless and BTC who sponsor the Top 8 and the league respectively. Some have suggested that ticket prices be reduced to try and bring back the numbers.