02 Mar 2015

Township Rollers might have been booted out of the CAF Champions league, but they will not regret taking part in the competition.

The team’s preliminary game against Kaizer Chiefs pulled the biggest crowd by a club last seen in the 1990’s when Extension Gunners played the same opponents. What was seen as exorbitant ticket prices ranging from P75 to P500 did not deter multitudes of soccer enthusiasts to attend the game.

The game might therefore have helped Rollers recover the costs they incurred by taking part in the competition. Township Rollers Holdings chairperson, Jagdish Shah said at least 15 000 people attended the game. He said the atmosphere at the stadium was so touching, given that spectators came in large numbers to support Rollers.

Shah said both the media and his management team had played an important role in marketing the game; hence the stadium was full, adding that Kaizer Chiefs’ name also contributed because although people were rooting for Rollers, they wanted to see Chiefs at the same time.

Shah said it was still early to state the figure because they had not yet reconciled their books. “Look we still have to find out how much we used in hospitality and remember that we were responsible for the visitors’ accommodation and transport,” he said. 

However, he said Batswana should continue to support teams and fill the stadiums to capacity like they did on Saturday as that could help administrators to take football to greater heights.

“Teams depend on gate takings and selling merchandise, so if supporters went to stadiums in large numbers it will help us a lot to channel money to football development,” he said.

Kaizer Chiefs proceeded to the next level of the competition with an aggregate of 3-1 as in the first leg they beat Rollers 2-1, while on February 28 they struck again through a solo goal. ENDS