Mufulira Leopards Chairman Wilton Chewe has observed […]

Mufulira Leopards Chairman Wilton Chewe has observed that rugby in Zambia still faces challenges before attaining commercialization, stating that most clubs are not raking anything from the sport apart from tournament prize money.

Speaking in an interview with the Zambian Business Times, Zimba revealed that his club makes about K20,000 in a competitive crowd puller like one against the Zambia Air Force-sponsored Red Arrows. A status that reflects a wider gap in commercialization of the sport, in comparison to football, is that, painstakingly, most clubs spend much more than they profit from travel and other logistics.

Chewe expressed dismay that most clubs in the league simply allow their fans to watch matches without payments, robbing the clubs of much-needed revenue. “If we are having a home game, we get the sales and also the gate takings. In Zambia we are the highest in terms of gate takings, but we can’t be compared with football.

We charge, and some games, like Red Arrows, which is a crowd puller, we go as far as K20,000 or K15,000. We do get something, and that money is used for winning bonuses.” Major, the lack of commercialization is that most corporate entities are reluctant to invest in the sport, and some of the sponsorship stems from Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

“We have a few sponsors or business partners, the coverage that we are receiving that we are being watched across Zambia; we hope to see business entities coming on board, and perhaps we are witnessing changes in the market consumation.”

 He hailed the introduction of a monetary prize to the league, which has boosted the competition but is still far from covering the expenses that clubs endure to fulfill matches. Far from progressive countries like Zimbabwe, where the sport is highly celebrated, Zambia remains on the path of growth.

Chewe observed the neighbor has seen extensive investments from the government. “In Zimbabwe the government has invested so much, and other than that they got committees that look at the national teams. We need to learn from them and have a similar setup.”

Article by Samuel Mutale