Bullets, Nomads in contrasting FDH Bank Cupsemis’ revenue
Sunday’s FDH Bank Cup semi-final between FCB Nyasa Bullets and Salima Sugar Dedza Dynamos grossed almost double the amount the other last-four match involving Mighty Mukuru Wanderers and Mafco FC generated.
Both Bullets and Wanderers hosted the semis at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre, but the People’s Team match grossed about K20.5 million with the two teams sharing about K4.2 million each while the Nomads and Mafco match made about K10.5 million with the teams getting at least K2 million each.
Nevertheless, the combined K31 million revenue of the two semi-final matches is K7.9 million less than the K48.9 million the last edition’s semi-final derby between Bullets and Wanderers grossed.
Bullets chief administration officer Albert Chigoga expressed satisfaction with their latest semi-final revenue, but Wanderers’ chief executive officer Roosevelt Mpinganjira said they were not content with their gross.
Chigoga said: “It is quite satisfactory to make such revenue in a game whose turnout was not big. We are very happy and we attribute that success to proper measures that were put in place, especially tightened security that stifled possibilities of gate fraud.”
On the other hand, Mpinganjira said the Wanderers versus Mafco encounter could have generated more, but poor timing did not help matters.
“We believe more could have been generated from our semi-final if it was not played mid-month. On the day, there were also other games which might have divided patronage,” he said.
“All the same, we will work hard to woo more fans to our games through the introduction of various initiatives. Otherwise, what we made during the recent FDH Bank Cup semi-final was unsatisfactory.”
Football analyst Parry Chinyama yesterday attributed the contrasting semi-final gate revenue to fans’ reactions to the teams’ recent results.
He said: “The big revenue difference is caused by the recent results of the teams. With Bullets winning most of their recent games, their supporters are happy and are always eager to patronise their matches.
“On the other hand, Wanderers had a string of not-so-inspiring results recently and most of their fans are reluctant to watch their games.”
“Apart from that, Bullets seem to have the largest following based on what we see. This makes them attract a big patronage no matter how small a team they play against.”
Meanwhile, Bullets progressed to the final after beating Dedza 5-1 while Wanderers lost 1-0 to Mafco. Bullets and Mafco will face-off in the final.
