Airtel final Raises k19.6m
Saturday’s Airtel Top 8 final between Nyasa Big Bullets and Silver Strikers, which attracted a huge turnout at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre, grossed a whopping K19.6 million.
The People’s Team won the match 5-3 on post-match penalties after playing out a one-all draw in regulation time.
From the gross, the two teams and ground owners got K3.69 million each, Football Association of Malawi (FAM) received K2.95 million while Malawi National Council of Sports took home K738 311.
The rest went towards service providers such as stewards, police and bouncers, ticketing and printing.
The gross realised was K11.1 million more than the K8.5 million gate revenue from the Blantyre derby in the Airtel Top 8 semi-final between Nyasa Big Bullets and Mighty Wanderers at the same venue a fortnight ago.
The other semi-final, which featured capital city rivals Silver and Civil Service (Civo) United, raised K9.8 million at the spacious Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe.
FAM marketing and broadcasting manager Tulipo Mwenelupembe attributed the improved revenue to good planning.
He said: “We are satisfied as the figure is way above the gross realised from the Blantyre derby.
“I think the planning we had with stakeholders was good this time around following the post-mortem we had after the derby.
“There was an improvement in gate-management, security and we tried our best to seal the loopholes.”
Mwenelupembe said they sold slightly less than 10 000 tickets, “so the figure is a reflection of the turnout”.
He also said the advance sale of tickets helped in the generation of more revenue as about K6.1 million was realised through that avenue, translating to about 30 percent of the gross.
But Bullets chief executive officer Suzgo Nyirenda said while the revenue was satisfactory, there is room for improvement.
He said: “Everything being equal, we expected to make K20 million to K25 million, but all the same, it is, by far, an improved figure compared to the Blantyre derby.
“There are still cartels that are syphoning money at the expense of the clubs. We also feel that FAM and Sports Council are getting a lot of share at the expense of the teams.
“So, there are still some loopholes that need to be filled.”
Silver Strikers chief executive officer Thoko Chimbali had not responded to our questionnaire by press
