10 Nov 2016

Organisers of the Mascom Top 8 tournament have expressed concern about low attendance at their matches two weeks ago.

Therefore, they were aiming at attracting more spectators at the remaining matches.

The quarter-final second-leg matches of the lucrative Tse di Tona cup would take place this weekend. Miscellaneous welcome Orapa United in Serowe tonight at 8pm.

The two teams played to a goalless draw in the first leg played in Orapa.

The second match would be a clash between Gaborone United and BDF XI in Molepolole on Saturday afternoon (kick-off 4:15pm).

GU would need to overturn a two-goal deficit in this tie after succumbing to a 3-1 first leg defeat against a BDF side inspired by winger, Kobamelo Kebaikanye in Gaborone two weeks ago.

Jwaneng Galaxy will meet Mochudi Centre Chiefs ain Jwaneng on Sunday afternoon (kick-off 4:30pm) with the tie balance following a goalless first leg in Gaborone.

Township Rollers take a 1-0 advantage over Police XI into the second leg in Gaborone on Monday night (8pm).

Ahead of these mouthwatering clashes, the organisers are keeping fingers crossed that more people would go to the stadiums.

“We have realised that our numbers are down and really we have seen that our marketing is down. We have to pull together so that we make this tournament a very successful tournament,” organising committee chairman, Simon Mmopi told media on Wednesday.

Addressing a press conference at Lekidi Football Centre in Gaborone, Mmopi admitted that the competition had thus far failed to match previous once in terms of excitement.

“Stakes have been set high by the previous tournaments and the euphoria from the previous tournaments has been high. Today, we have realised that there is not enough hype like in the previous tournaments,” Mmopi said.

Acting Botswana Premier League (BPL) chief executive, Thabo Ntshinogang stated that they had come up with new strategies to make the tournament more appealing to supporters.

One of the strategies, he explained, was to switch kick off times to avoid matches being played when conditions were too hot because the heat affected the quality of the games and also prevented people from going to stadiums.

“We have changed the times taking into consideration the heat wave in this country. The heat wave affects the players as well as the performance that the players can give us during the match.

If there is too much heat the players cannot exert themselves as much as they would do when the weather conditions are cooler. Secondly, we also feel that our spectators somehow would find it easy not to go to the games if there is too much heat,” Ntshinogang added.

He further said they were going to use social and mainstream media to hype the tournament in an effort to attract more spectators. “We have the BPL social media page, the Mascom social media page and the BFA social media page. Those are going to be used.

We have also asked different media outlets to help us promote the games, and we believe that people will turn up in large numbers to these games,” the acting BPL CEO said.

He said tickets for the games were going to be sold at computicket outlets including Shoprite Stores and OK Furnishers around the country.
He said the move to engage computicket was taken to avoid congestion at the gates of stadia. ENDS