According to the Tanzania Football Federation, TFF, the CECAFA Kagame Castle Cup final between Tanzania’s arch-soccer rivals, Simba and Young Africans, earned 355m/- from gate collection.
The TFF said the entire tournament earned a total of one billion shillings, quite something for a tournament of such magnitude.
However, both CECAFA and the TFF avoided one thing, dwelling on the implication of the total amount of money earned from the tournament compared to past, similar tournaments.
Whether the brushing aside of such an important issue was deliberate or accidental that remains a conjecture.
However, for institutions entrusted with the task of developing soccer in the region, dwelling on the implication of gate collection earnings as part of determining the game’s growth in the region was extremely important.
Indeed, how would countries that participated in the tournament appreciate the game’s growth from entertainment to financial wellbeing if institutions such as CECAFA and TFF elect to remain silent on important issues such as earnings from gate collections?
Talking about gate collection, was the 355m/- earned in the last two matches, namely, the third place play-off and the final adequate given the capacity crowd that thronged the stadium?
Given the stature of the game in the last pairing, 355m/- was nothing but peanuts and this raises questions over earnings ploughed in by the ultra modern stadium since it hosted its first match in 2007.
Consider this: Had all who thronged the stadium each paid 10,000/- to the two games, the total gate collection earnings would have been 600m/-, that is almost double what was announced.
But we all know that there different charges, meaning that the end result should have been higher than 600m/-.
What is perhaps astonishing is that even the media were not interested in the issue, meaning that they all took the 355m/- to be nothing, but a normal!
This beats me because the given figure for those two final matches is quite inadequate especially if one takes into account the fact that the stadium was over-filled!
For instance there were numerous cases, in the stadium, of those who had paid the highest entry charges failing to get seats once they got into the stadium!
The question is why did the stadium management allow such a life threatening situation to happen?
Yes, it was a life-threatening situation because had anything happened, say in the form of a stampede, the end result would have been catastrophic.
But, what baffled me was the conduct of the media. They did not bother to put the stadium manager on the spot over this incident.
Yet media pictures clearly showed people sitting or standing on the corridors and other open spaces.
It is important to bear in mind that the main purpose of building such Olympic size international stadia is to bring some form of organized sitting.
This means that it should be quite possible for every soccer fan to know exactly which seat in what compartment of the stadium he/she is supposed to occupy.
If the stadium sits 60,000 people, then the stadium should not carry more than the specified number, period.
Unfortunately, that was not the end of the story. Most of the gates on the southern part of the stadium remained closed even after the end of the match!
This is another problem and if that problem did not erupt on that day, then as long as such practice continues, it is nothing but another problem waiting to happen.
Again, it is important for the stadium management to bear in mind that that practice ought to be brought to an end before it is too late.
This is because stadia stampede that have happened in the world over in the past were a result of forcing multitudes through few gates!
The point is, the number of gates the Dar es Salaam National Stadium has are not where they are for decorative purposes, far from it.
They were designed specifically for handling the highest number of fans the stadium can host, hence the dire need to ensure that at the end of the match, all gates are opened in order to avert problems.
But when all is said and done, the TFF ought to take a hard look at those gate collection earnings.
By Attilio Tagalile
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