The Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) has been urged to lower entrance fees at the Main National Stadium in Dar es Salaam to enable many soccer to fans enter the ultra modern facility.
The call was made by soccer fans in separate interviews by The Guardian on Sunday shortly after the World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations qualifier, between Tanzania and Cape Verde in Dar es Salaam recently.
A fan who identified himself as Hamza Mgunda said, many soccer fans fail to turn up at the stadium because they can’t afford the high gate fees.
“TFF should reduce the entrance fees if they really want to see the stadium full to the brim. They should understand that the motive behind the construction of the new stadium was to allow many Tanzanians to watch games there. But these people seem to care more about money only,“ complained Mgunda.
He said given its big sitting capacity, the stadium can generate a lot of cash if the fees were lowered to attract many fans.
Another soccer fan, Joseph Kapongo, urged the government to intervene in this issue, saying the current gate fees deter many people from entering the stadium.
“Here you have a stadium that can sit over sixty thousand people, and therefore built purposely for the people; why turn it into a money-making project instead?“ queried Kapongo.
He added that soccer officials should not treat the new stadium like the old National Stadium whose capacity is less than 20,000 fans. Gate fees at the old stadium are usually higher.
The Taifa Stars-Cape Verde match was reported to have fetched only 70m/-, an amount some soccer pundits argue was comparatively low.
They said had soccer officials lowered the gate fees, especially considering that that the match wasn’t of much importance to Tanzanians, the amount would have been much higher.
This is because Taifa Stars had already failed to make it to the World Cup 2010 and African Cup of Nations even though it won the last match against Cape Verde 3-1 a team under a Portuguese trainer, Jose Deus`s.
- SOURCE: Sunday Observer
