Bingu National Stadium to host e-ticketing hub

Ministry of Sports plans to launch Automated Gate Management Policy which will see Bingu National Stadium (BNS) hosting e-ticketing server that will link all the country’s major stadiums, Weekend Nation can reveal.

The project, which is also one of Malawi National Council of Sports’ reforms areas, is at an estimated cost of K300 million.

Director of Sports Jameson Ndalama said the plans to implement the project are now at an advanced stage as they plan to include it in the Ministry of Sports’ projects in the 2023/24 Budget.

He said: “Ministry of Sports will be responsible for the installation of the hardware and software at the hub, at the Bingu National Stadium.

“The other stadiums will simply buy their gadgets to be fitted at their facilities. All the data captured will be transmitted and processed at the BNS server.”

Initially, stadium owners planned to install the electronic ticketing system separately, but none has this far succeeded.

Government planned to install the system at government-owned BNS, Civo Stadium and Kamuzu Stadium, and Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) wanted to have the same at Silver Stadium while Football Association of Malawi (FAM) wanted to have the same technology at its Mpira Stadium.

However, under the Automated Gate Management Policy, the project will be a joint venture, with BNS acting as the centre for electronic ticketing, with the other stadium linked to it.

Ndalama said this will reduce costs since government will buy the mainframe hardware and software to be installed at BNS while the other stadiums will just purchase the gadgets for validating barcode on entry at the stadiums.

The ministry got quotations from firms specialised in installation of the system such as South Africa’s TicketPro at an estimated K300 million.

However, Ndalama said government would now source locally through the normal procurement procedure for the BNS installation of the technology.

Once BNS installation is complete, the other stadium owners will also have to follow suit since under the Automated Gate Management Policy only stadia with e-ticketing system will be allowed to host matches.

Malawi National Council of Sports spokesperson Edgar Ntulumbwa said they already started engaging stakeholders on the Automated Gate Management Policy guidelines.

He said: “We had fruitful meetings with different stakeholders on the possibility of using their platforms for gate management systems and all of them showed commitment to work with Sports Council on e-ticketing.

“It is an expensive exercise, which is why we engaged different stakeholders to assist in implementing the project.

“As of now, a draft policy on automated gate fee collection has been drawn which will guide stakeholders on the use of automated gate fee collection.”

FAM president Walter Nyamilandu welcomed the project, saying BNS needs the technology.

“I wish this was prioritised at Bingu National Stadium because entry to the stadium is not well controlled. This would set the pace on e-ticketing.”

Nyamilandu said the association will also support the e-ticketing project at Mpira Stadium, saying the earlier plans for the facility were affected by Covid-19.

He said: “Covid-19 disturbed our plans as we had to divert funds towards relief support of players and officials. It also didn’t make sense to invest in the gate ticketing system when fans were not allowed at the stadium.

“Once the restrictions on public have been waived off we will embark on full-scale roll out of e-ticketing. In the meantime, we have to rely on low-cost solutions that don’t involve heavy infrastructure, but just online ticketing.”

Super League of Malawi (Sulom) general secretary Williams Banda also welcomed the development, saying it will revolutionise gate management.

He said: “I think we could be the only country that still uses the old system of selling tickets physically at turnstiles.”

Banda said the e-ticketing system would reduce the cost of match administration.

“Right now we engage more human resource at the gates such as gate management firms for checks and balances. But with the e-ticketing system the manpower will be reduced to more than half.”

Meanwhile, supporters, who are often accused of interfering with gate management, have said they will support the initiative.

Nyasa Big Bullets Supporters’ Committee general secretary Archibald Kasakura said: “Actually, e-ticketing has been long overdue. Clubs have complained for a long time about gate revenue pilferage.

“As supporters, we know our role. It is not at the gates. We will support this initiative because it will improve gate revenue management and in turn help clubs as they are turning commercial.”

Silver Strikers’ supporters national coordinator Chisomo Mwamadi said: “It is a move in the right direction and a welcome development for any well-meaning supporter of any club, including Silver.

“It will help us a lot in our commercialisation drive where this year we want all Silver supporters to take a leading role. We will reduce fraud that way and help the club more. The club comes first.”

Apart from improving efficiency, electronic tickets allow organisers to avoid the cost of producing and distributing physical tickets.