MBABANE – Season tickets.
This is the innovation proposed by the Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) because it has the potential to readily avail E100 million to the PLE before the season games even start. This strategy was announced by Premier League of Eswatini’s Sibusiso ‘Scorpion’ Nxumalo when presenting the MTN MoMo Cup voting results during a press conference at Mahlalekhukhwini House yesterday.
Nxumalo revealed that the PLE is considering new marketing strategies which will ensure the sustainability of a high-quality league.
“We are trying to help our teams to think of football as a business. The investment we have seen being made by the teams is encouraging to us because our football will not survive if we still expect it to survive from match revenue,” said Nxumalo during the press conference.
“We need to marry our football to TV. We need to look into the concept of season tickets so that the teams get the money up-front and are able to prepare their teams. Then we can give quality football after that. So this is what we’re currently considering,” said Nxumalo.
He added that they are considering a targeted marketing strategy, since they now know where their core fans are, based on the MTN MoMo Cup mobile voting data. It was revealed during the press conference that a total of about 192,000 votes were collected. Nxumalo projected that they would be able to make revenues of E100 million based on only 100,000 fans.
“Let us say each of these people want to watch a PLE game anywhere, it is E1,000 for a season. From that, the Premier League has the potential of making E100 million upfront, and the teams can get grants,” added Nxumalo.
The Premier League’s MoMo Cup playoffs are expected to happen on the 8th of October, starting at 9AM at King Sobhuza Stadium.
