The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Senior Reporter
THE Bulawayo City Council has turned down an application by Highlanders Football Club to have its levy for the use of Barbourfields Stadium reduced from the 20 percent of gate takings per game.
The council -the sole proprietors of Bosso’s home ground – in turning down the application, among other issues noted that the team was no longer as popular in the city as evidenced by the reduced number of fans attending its home games. The local authority further noted that even at its best form, the team was failing to raise the required fee for the monthly maintenance of the ground, hence reducing the charge would mean the local authority will have to pay a heavy subsidy in looking after the facility.
According to a council report, council’s finance and development committee rejected the application last week, with the decision set to be endorsed at the full council meeting which will sit this Wednesday. The local authority claimed the cost of maintaining the stadium amounts to $29 665 a month with Highlanders only managing to pay an average of $6 000 a month.
“When they were on song and pulling crowds by their current standards, the average collection hovered around $14 000, this was still a far cry from the $29 665, incurred by the local authority to maintain the stadium. This was cause for concern from a revenue point of view, more so with the stadium having failed the test from the Confederation of African Football in terms of standards and compliance council thus desperately required the funds to bring the stadium to required standards,” reads part of the report.
During deliberations by the council committee the councillors felt it would set a wrong precedence. The committee’s chairperson, Ward 4 councillor, Silas Chigora noted that it would be wrong to review the figure downwards at a time when the local authority had come up with a supplementary budget.
“Rounding up debate, the chamber secretary (Sikhangele Zhou) noted that while the club was struggling to survive, this was the same for all organisations hence the management recommendation to maintain the status quo. The Town Clerk (Christopher Dube) said that the team was a community team and he appreciated its dedication to sports which brought joy to the city and the country at large. He pointed out that the National Sports Stadium charges were at 15 percent,” reads the report.
The 20 percent per game charge came into effect in 1986 after the local authority passed a resolution to increase the figure from 15 percent, the move was later endorsed by the High Court after Zifa — representing the PSL clubs — lost the protracted battle thereafter to block the upward review.
According to last season’s figures, Highlanders had 117 832 fans paying to watch their 17 home league matches, with the highest attendance being for the encounter with Dynamos on 9 September where 13 023 witnessed the clash between the country’s most followed teams do battle at Barbourfields. The second highest figure was 11 954 who watched Bosso take on Caps United on 20 May while 9 679 were spectators when Highlanders took on Shabanie Mine on 22 April.
