SC Villa justify Shs50,000 ticket

"We spoke to a top Villa official on the sideline of their meeting with Namboole, and Sports Minister and due to the unofficial nature of the conversation, we will keep them anonymous. But here is the club’s mathematics.

“If we charged Shs10,000 per match for 15 home games and say five cup games – if you include this Champions League and Uganda Cup, then for 20 matches, a fan is giving us Shs200,000 a season,” Nkemba said.

“Break down that to a month and a fan is giving us about Shs16,000 a month and Shs550 a day.”

If the club got about 1,000 committed fans to pay for every match day, those would give the club a windfall of about Shs550,000 a day.

“This is money that cannot pay training allowances for all players per day. But even beyond that, there are other things to take care of on every training and match day.

“The same fans want you to sign players and it is not an easy market,” the official added.

He, however, understands that the onus falls on the club leadership to look for other avenues of funding. Similarly, fans might not entirely appreciate that kind of breakdown.

Most of them are accustomed to finding out the total gate collections per match day – if the information is provided – and running with such a round figure.

Usually in Europe, fan groups would share information about ticket price increaments or cuts and their leaders would engage the clubs and then communicate the resolutions to the wider fanbase.

Such engagement is not there among Ugandan clubs let alone Villa.

Numbers

50,000 – Price of SC Villa ticket for the Champions League

10,000 – The fee that is usually recognized by fans as a fair price for a matchday ticket

550 – Price breakdown per day if a fan pays Shs10,000