3 reasons why fans are not pitching up for sport in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe cricket fans PIC: Zimbabwe Cricket

It has been a few months since Zimbabwe started allowing sports fans into stadiums.

Under lockdown restrictions varying sizes of fans are allowed in as spectators to watch their favourite teams as long as they are vaccinated.

That being the case, bar a few events such as the Davis Cup matches and rugby tournaments, there has been lack of attendance by fans.

The Castle Lager Premier Soccer League is struggling for fans as are the Zimbabwe Cricket premier domestic tournaments.

The question raised by many is why.

Here are our three reasons.

Poorly advertised

Bar social media posts and the likes not much seems to be done to get fans into stadiums. It seems for some sporting codes that the fact that they have the sport is enough and people shouuld turn up. They feel almost entitled to the fans and you almost think they feel the fans are ungrateful for their efforts. And yet there are competing interests when matches are on from Premier League on TV to heavily advertised entertainment events. Because there is no attracting beside the sport itself, fans would rather go to a chillspot. More needs rto be done by the codes and clubs to make matches occassions.

Support base problem

This one goes back to school days in some instances. Aside from traditional Group A schools, parent and family support is rare at school events. So players now at professional level rarely get their families to come and watch. Add to that some of the clubs seem to struggle to identify with their communities as they used to and so the support is not as fervent.

Lack of stars

Unless you closely follow the sport it is hard for people to identify stars who transcend the sport. You didn’t need to be close to or even understand the sport to know Andy Flower or Madinda Ndlovu. They were people you paid a ticket to go and watch because they represented the beauty of the sport. They were the poster boys for their sports. With media coverage higher than ever, for some reason, no new real stars have been coming. Although, of course, the quality of the media has been problematic at best.