THE BULAWAYO City Council has resolved to come up with a “memorandum of agreement” with the current Premier Soccer League (PSL) administration so that they reap full benefits from clubs using their stadia.
SUKOLUHLE MTHETHWA SPORTS REPORTER
The city council wants the PSL to present match tickets days before a match to enable pre-match audit as the municipality claims ticket cheating is very rife at the stadia. Council also say there is need for the declaration of complimentary tickets to the local authority so as to avoid too many people going in for free.
According to the latest council minutes, director of Housing and Community Services Isaiah Magagula said council, by virtue of its ownership of stadia in the city, was one of the major sport stakeholders unlike in most European countries where soccer teams own stadia.
Local authorities were responsible for constructing the stadia and then hiring them out to soccer teams through their regulating body, the PSL.
On the other hand, the PSL has demanded that council sign lease agreements with clubs.
Magagula said although such arrangements had gone smoothly over the years, of late there had been some challenges and misunderstandings caused by administrators who want things done their own way.
He said a memorandum of agreement had been signed between the City Council and the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) on the hire of stadia for soccer matches.
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This had spelt out the conditions of hire and use of the stadia, amongst which was the payment of a deposit against damages and the collection of 20% levy from the total match tickets at the end of the match.
“With the advent of the National Premier Soccer League in 1993, which became an affiliate of Zifa and took over the running of the league, clubs fell under the new arrangement.The ground rental arrangement had been maintained, but with an additional requirement that council could collect 20% or a direct hire charge depending on which would be deemed high. At the present moment, the direct hire was $2 211,45 per day.
“The records also show that among the conditions of hire, there was mention of a deposit to be paid for the hire of the stadia. This was to stand against damages and was refundable at the end of the match if no damages occurred. The current deposit paid for Barbourfields Stadium is $960, for Luveve and White City stadiums the hire charge is $665,85 and the deposit is $576. Figures were determined by the sizes of the stadia” said Magagula.
Also of concern to the city council was the propensity of the league to unilaterally slash the entry fees into the stadia by the public, and then council finds itself on the losing side.
Last season the fans watched the Mbada Diamonds Cup matches by forking out $1.
In such cases it was recommended that council charge the requisite direct hire charge while complimentary tickets were also not submitted to council for verification and this lead to masses of people getting into the stadia for free.
