Stung by the small number of people attending their matches, the Wild Boys wanted to reduce gate charges for the rest of the ground seat from US$3 to one dollar. But club president Joel Sengeredo said the PSL turned down the suggestion without even giving it a trial. Sengeredo said he had hoped the PSL would at least allow his club to slash down charges as an experiment to see whether that would attract supporters to stadiums.
Against Highlanders, we made only $250. We could have realised thousands had we charged a dollar. It is better to have 9 000 people paying a dollar each than 100 fans forking out $3. It does not make business sense, said Sengeredo. He said the high gate charges were chasing away fans adding that most PSL clubs were struggling. ”I can tell you most of these guys who own clubs either owe friends a lot of money or they have borrowed money from banks just to give the impression that they can still sponsor football. We are suffering, he said.
PSL treasurer Harrison Mbewe maintained that $3 was an agreement by the PSL general assembly as the minimum charge for fans who wanted to watch top-flight football. Surprisingly, his own club, Dynamos was early this year allowed to reduce gate charges from $3 to $2 Sengeredo said they approached the PSL after looking at what they felt was what our people could afford.
The Shooting Stars boss said his club is convinced that current gate charges are far beyond the reach of the ordinary football fan who wants to come and watch his favourite sport but is being kept away because he cannot afford to pay to enter the stadium.
Post published in: Athletics