FAM, Silver differ on ticket pre-sale
Silver Strikers has opposed FAM and Sulom condition to only allow the TNM Super League giants to pre-sale all home matches tickets only if other stakeholders are involved in the gate management.
The Central Bankers announced in March that they would pre-sale VIP tickets for all league matches at K75 000 and ordinary stands’ tickets at K20 000 as one way of improving accountability and efficiency as the club is stepping up its commercialisation drive.
Silver intends to establish a security company as a subsidiary firm to be responsible for gate management.
However, Football Association of Malawi (FAM) and Super League of Malawi (Sulom) have asked Silver to allow all stakeholders to be involved, according to a report submitted by FAM commercial and marketing Limbani Matola.
Reads the report in part: “Silver Strikers FC [said it] will take full charge of both match day ticket production and gate management as it is soon establishing a subsidiary security company which will be responsible for gate management for all their matches at their home ground.
“In our prevailing environment, to have a home team alone, produce match day tickets, manage the gates and determine how much [from the seasonal tickets] to be shared with other stakeholders, breaks the concept of oversight function.”
However, in an interview yesterday, Silver chief executive officer Thoko Chimbali said they do not want visiting teams to be part of gate management.
“This is not possible. We can only manage our stadium. How do we accept this when playing Nyasa Big Bullets at Kamuzu Stadium?”
FAM has also recommended that the pre-sale extend to cup games such as Airtel Top 8, FDH Bank Cup and Fisd Challenge Cup.
The report further advises that Silver should not sell all its 794 VIP tickets but rather reserve some seats for invited guests.
Writes Matola in the report: “Silver must make deliberate efforts manage the stadium capacity and reserve some seats out of the seasonal tickets to cater for additional requirements, especially with the VIP.
“For example, out of 794 VIP seats, 100 could be reserved for invited guests when such need arises. These could be for their sponsors, league and competition sponsors, match organisers, football administrators and complimentary allocation for the away team.
“The revenue share model with other stakeholders remains the same. Only that Silver will benefit from the excess cash from the seasonal tickets whose fans may not show up on the actual day of the match…” Sulom general secretary Williams Banda said they will make a decision once Silver adopts the recommendations.
“To be honest, this is a positive initiative. However, we want Silver to clear the areas we feel are crucial as per the recommendations in the report. Once they respond, we will sit down with FAM to assess and decide whether to approve the initiative or not,” he said.
But Chimbali said they would meet the other requirements.
“Recommendations like reservation of 100 seats tells us that they have agreed to the adventure. The other issues are small operational issues that can be sorted out without problems,” he said.
