Ministry sets fees for Bingu Stadium use
Ministry of Sports and Culture has set tough conditions for clubs wishing to use the new Bingu National Stadium (BNS) which include advanced part payment of hiring fees and agreeing to pay the costs of any property destroyed during matches.
The ministry’s spokesperson Christopher Mbukwa said other requirements are that the clubs must foot the bills for the hiring of stewards, first-aid personnel and cleaning services.
The current arrangement at State-owned stadiums such as Kamuzu, Civo and Mzuzu is that government gets 25 percent of the gate collections of every match.
However, Mbukwa said there will be a different arrangement at BNS.
“Right now we are yet to come up with the hiring fees for all facilities at the stadium. Primarily, the arrangement is that the clubs or whoever wants to use the facility is supposed to make part-payment upfront with the balance to be paid immediately after the event,” he said.
Mbukwa said potential clients should expect the cost of hiring the stadium to be much higher than the other stadiums.
“The number of stewards, first-aid and security staff is expected to be usually higher because we want to try as much as possible to protect the high-tech property there and ensure security of the fans or participants of any activity taking place there,” he said.
Meanwhile, Epac United, the only Super League club without a home ground, has unveiled plans to hire BNS but has queried advanced payment conditions.
The club’s sponsor Dean Josaya said in an interview on Wednesday that the arrangement is not good for football development.
“The best way is to follow the normal payment procedure where government takes 25 percent of the gate collection. The issue of advanced payment will hurt clubs because they will end up paying more than what they will get from gate collections when attendance at matches is poor,” Josaya said.
He said the tough hiring conditions will defeat the purpose of the multi-million kwacha Chinese-funded stadium.
“The main aim of the facility is to improve sports and not to be run as a business. It is, therefore, important that some of these conditions are loosened so that teams are able to play there,” he said.
He further said once the stadium is operational, the clubs will table a bid to secure it for their home matches.
“The conditions will not affect our plans because we really need a place we can call home. We will try to reach a compromise with the Sports Ministry. Otherwise, using other club’s grounds has been inconveniencing,” he said.
The Sports Ministry says it expects the stadium to be launched once it, among other remaining projects, has been connected to the Lilongwe City sewer line and the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) main line.
I have some observations to make on this news story. To begin with, thugs that masquerade as fans/supporters should heed the message and stay away from the facility. Should government be serious enough in implementing tough measures, BNS will live to benefit the country for a long time. We have plentiful of evidence on how poor management of existing sporting structures in the country has taken us to this far-no national stadium of international standard not until BNS was constructed.
Lest we forget. The facility was built with a concessionary loan from China whose payment period is 35 years after a 7-year grace period. There is a danger the facility could become derelict soon while loan payment is not complete if we don’t run it with the utmost care it deserves.
Secondly, Epac must be joking. The club a negligible fan base of mostly ‘ganyu’ fans. The team fails to fill small seater-capacity stadiums such as Silver Stadium. Where are they getting courage? I’m baffled at the Club’s bigheartedness as to dare hiring a facility whose managers are putting across quite clearly that would be expensive. If you bank on other teams’ fans when you meet their teams as your cash cows, then wait until day you run your experiment.