22 December 2011
UGANDA : Slump in Fuba revenue is only tip of task
Basketball is definitely the envy of so many sports disciplines in Uganda. Their games enjoy relative peace and fans come in their thousands without much appealing from the local body, Fuba. Of course, this season never passed without bad incidents like a fan who poured beer on UCU Canons’ guard Geoffrey Omondi or another who struck an umpire with a missile in Game Five of the finals.
This has not been the most successful of seasons for Fuba especially when it came to their bank balance. During last year’s playoffs, Shs68m came through the gates. Just over half of that – Shs35m – was realised this season from the playoffs even though the number of games is exactly the same like last year.
Fuba know they could have made more if the rates were constant from the beginning. It took a media outcry to reduce the fees from Shs10, 000 to Shs5, 000 for ordinary stands. The semifinal games in the playoffs didn’t have big crowds. Fans did return for the latter part as the rates were reviewed downwards and thrill multiplied – sevenfold.
If basketball officials were getting lost in the success of a sport moving in a positive direction with limited support from volunteers and individuals, this should be a wakeup call. The league still needs to be better marketed and packaged to penetrate new audiences with a fan not needing to call up a friend to find out whether there is a game or not.
The media has done its job even when information is often not easy to find. Recently, the Uganda Super League (USL) launched a website – www.usl.ug – and basketball ought to head into cyberspace. There are some people doing basketball a commendable service on the social networking site – Facebook – but not everything found on such channels is factual.
It’s high time this is streamlined to have communication not dependent on having a personal relationship with an official in the federation. Clubs must play their part too. To this day, most clubs fail to attract sponsors despite the marketing potential any company would see in the size of the crowd that crams YMCA court.
Common sense dictates that basketball is headed in a positive direction which cannot be said of so many other disciplines curtailed by maladministration. Like the dwindling bank balance, the sport needs more than the adrenalin rush.
This has not been the most successful of seasons for Fuba especially when it came to their bank balance. During last year’s playoffs, Shs68m came through the gates. Just over half of that – Shs35m – was realised this season from the playoffs even though the number of games is exactly the same like last year.
Fuba know they could have made more if the rates were constant from the beginning. It took a media outcry to reduce the fees from Shs10, 000 to Shs5, 000 for ordinary stands. The semifinal games in the playoffs didn’t have big crowds. Fans did return for the latter part as the rates were reviewed downwards and thrill multiplied – sevenfold.
If basketball officials were getting lost in the success of a sport moving in a positive direction with limited support from volunteers and individuals, this should be a wakeup call. The league still needs to be better marketed and packaged to penetrate new audiences with a fan not needing to call up a friend to find out whether there is a game or not.
The media has done its job even when information is often not easy to find. Recently, the Uganda Super League (USL) launched a website – www.usl.ug – and basketball ought to head into cyberspace. There are some people doing basketball a commendable service on the social networking site – Facebook – but not everything found on such channels is factual.
It’s high time this is streamlined to have communication not dependent on having a personal relationship with an official in the federation. Clubs must play their part too. To this day, most clubs fail to attract sponsors despite the marketing potential any company would see in the size of the crowd that crams YMCA court.
Common sense dictates that basketball is headed in a positive direction which cannot be said of so many other disciplines curtailed by maladministration. Like the dwindling bank balance, the sport needs more than the adrenalin rush.
# posted by afrbk : 11:57
