Some are actually unusable if you take the sad story of the Masunga Sports Complex. The Molepolole Sports Complex is also one facility that could morph into a white elephant. In fact, general stadia maintenance, including private facilities like the University of Botswana and Sir Seretse Khama Barracks (SSKB) Stadium have been the Achilles heel in Botswana. The most prominent and bigger stadia like the National Stadium and the Lobatse Sports Complex have also not been spared with authorities failing the test. Only one stadium, the Obed Itani Chilume in Francistown, has been approved by CAF to host matches after passing the continent football body's homologation test. This could then point to a need for a radical change in the construction and management of facilities across the country. South Africa has always been a beacon in many aspects, including stadia management. Look at their model where top facilities, including the FNB Stadium, are under private management.
A company, Stadium Management South Africa, takes care of the FNB Stadium, Orlando Stadium, the Rand Stadium and the Dobsonville Stadium, all four located in Johannesburg. The approach to stadium construction and maintenance in South Africa is anchored on commercial appeal. The facilities are not just used during midweek or over the weekend for 90-minute football activities only. A lot other income generating activities take place at these facilities. The Moses Mabhida Stadium, the iconic 2010 World Cup venue in Durban is also a model worth following if local authorities are serious about keeping local facilities in pristine condition. Other than shops and restaurants within the stadium, there are other activities like bungee jumping and sky car rides. Obviously there was wider thinking, which went into the design and construction of the stadium. The archaic thinking that a stadium should be a sport only, or on occasion, music festivals venue, should be relegated to the past. As authorities in Botswana prepare to add more stadia, commercial or income generating thinking should be central to their planning. A stadium can be a continuous income generator, rather than limited to periodic events.
This is why the BNSC is crying over the expenses of maintaining stadia. There isn't enough economic activities taking place within these facilities to off-set the maintenance cost. That will continue to be the concern until there is a mindset shift from seeing a stadium as a 90-minute place for football only to a much more commercial entity that can generate income around the clock. And to imagine that the country would have required in excess of P500 million per annum to maintain 2027 Africa Cup of Nations stadia, had the bid been won. This could have proved a bridge too far, with the authorities struggling to maintain much smaller 8,000-seater facilities like the Serowe, Masunga and Molepolole Sports Complexes.
