‘Covid-19 should Wake up teams’

TNM Super League teams should embrace commercialisation to survive the impact of Covid-19, a sports marketing analysts have said.

Sports marketing analyst Felix Sapao said in the face of Covid-19 teams should devise fundraising initiatives.

Said Sapao: “One factor that I will always ask is if our clubs, be it big or small, have long-term strategic plans. The Covid-19 outbreak should give the clubs chance to draw up something and think outside the box to look for revenue streams.”

 In an interview yesterday, Charles Nyirenda also said the pandemic should jolt clubs to think of more income-generating activities.

He said: “The choices are limited as the whole world has suffered badly from the Covid-19 pandemic because it has disturbed businesses which are a revenue channel of football.

“Perhaps we could be looking at exploring the TV coverage as a serious source which clubs could fall back on in difficult times. Relying on gate collections for survival is no longer an option,” said.

Sports business analyst Kevin Moyo also said teams need to enhance their commercial activities to survive during the pandemic.

This comes following Chitipa United’s successful fundraising campaigns which have seen buying a team bus and ventured into replica jersey sale.

Sapao applauded Chitipa United for coming up with the commercialisation drive.

He said: “We always like to point fingers at clubs that they are not doing anything.

“All what Chitipa United have done is get two commercial ventures in place, one of which is key as they get to interact with club supporters and the supporters now have something tangible from the club.”

 In an interview on Wednesday, Chitipa United general secretary Duma Ngoma said the executive committee set up a fundraising committee to help the club realise its dream.

He said: “Our efforts in the commercialisation drive has so far attracted the attention of people, including big clubs. This has been possible because as a small club, we don’t have solid sponsorship and we decided to engage the community and other well-wishers which is paying off.”

 Wanderers general secretary Victor Maunde, whose team is struggling to benefit from their commercialisation initiatives, commended their counterparts for setting the pace.

“What Chitipa United have done is really great. No team at the moment has done well, considering that it is a small team,” he said.

Maunde confessed that the Nomads are not doing much to utilise their strong supporters’ base.

“For Wanderers, it goes down to the fact that there’s not much effort because we have individuals that have been supporting us over years. But we need to step up our efforts to engage our supporters to get involved in a commercialisation drive,” he said.

Maunde also blamed the conditions of their sponsorship with Be Forward Wanderers which, among others, do not allow them to produce replica jerseys.

 “We have always wanted to produce replica jerseys, but we are strained because of the binding contract with our sponsors. The deal stipulates that they should only produce them for us,” he said.

 Nyasa Big Bullets chief administration officer Albert Chigoga also said Chitipa have set the commercialisation pace.

“We congratulate them on showing it that commercialisation is viable. However, as Bullets we have our way of doing it and we are doing it well.

“If it was not for the Covid-19 our replica jerseys would have sold  out,” he said.