Branding war: BNSC warned BFA
Mqondisi Dube | Tuesday November 7, 2017 15:28
This comes at a time when there is a branding war between cellular phone service providers, Mascom and Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC). As a result of the impasse, the Township Rollers versus Security Systems encounter had to be moved to Molepolole on Sunday.
Mascom owns the National Stadium advertising rights, but the BTC is the league’s title sponsor, which has sparked a branding war.
“The stadium has advertising rights for sustenance. When the government handed over the facilities to us, they said we should generate revenue to enable us to maintain the stadiums. We invited all companies to take up the advertising space, and only Mascom showed interest,” Reikeletseng narrated.
He said after the previous season’s branding challenges, the BNSC had urged the BFA to involve them in contract negotiations. BTC and BFA recently signed a record extending P39 million deal to sponsor the Premiership.
Reikeletseng said it is a rule that if any party wants to use the stadium, they cannot “get it clean”, meaning there would take it with the already existing advertisements.
“If they do not want a clean stadium, they have to pay Mascom for lost exposure. It is that simple. We had told the BFA to take us on board in their contract negotiations as they use our facilities. But they went ahead without involving us,” Reikeletseng said.
Reikeletseng regretted that the BFA was now contacting them in retrospect, after failing to involve the BNSC during contract negotiations.
However, he did not mince his words when he said sport should not be dragged into branding wars.
“The companies co-exist elsewhere but not at the stadium. We don’t want brand wars in sport. We should not be dragged into such issues,” he said.
Meanwhile, Botswana Premier League acting chief executive officer, Thabo ‘Styles’ Ntshinogang has said they will meet the BNSC to discuss the matter.
“We have not finished discussions. We expect to conclude before the next league action, which is after the international break. We will inform all stakeholders of the outcome,” Ntshinogang said.