Silver to introduce e-ticketing

TNM Super League giants Silver Strikers will in the forthcoming season introduce electronic ticketing (e-ticketing) selling system at their Silver Stadium base in Lilongwe, which will make it the first football venue to have the innovation.

The club’s marketing and communications officer David Dauda confirmed this in an interview on Tuesday, saying that the system installation process is nearing the end.

“I think we are at the tail end of it. We will definitely start using it this season,” he said.

Silver have embarked on a serious commercialisation drive, having set up offices and recruiting a chief executive officer as well as setting up a marketing department to spearhead their profit generation.

Dauda said the e-ticketing, widely viewed as a catalyst towards reducing fraud, will help maximise gate revenue collection.

 In the current set up, tickets for Super League matches across the country are sold physically which has seen fraudsters producing and selling counterfeit tickets.

Dauda said: “This will revolutionise football as it will give a realistic picture of how many people are getting into our stadium. We will be monitoring that in real time unlike the conventional ticketing system, which has countless times been dealt with people reaping football off.”

He could not disclose the cost of installing the e-ticketing system promising to unveil it after finalising the project.

“The club has spent some time and money on this drive and, therefore, it is only right to calculate at the end when it is operating,” he said.

In the meantime, Football Association of Malawi (FAM) has hailed Silver for the initiative, which it says is in line with its strategic plan.

Said the association’s competitions and communication director Gomezgani Zakazaka: “FAM leadership has agreed to roll out e-ticketing in the country. The starting point was to have it at Mpira and Chilomoni stadia. “If Silver installs it, we will support them to ensure the project is a success. Secondly, we will use it as a model and learn from them.”