Uganda can pick many lessons ahead of hosting 2025 Chan and 2027 Afcon

Hosting a major sports tournament is not for the faint-hearted. Both internal and external constraints are sure to weigh unevenly on any economy.

Big or small. Behind the absence of a workable post-tournament utilisation plan may therefore be glimpsed the suffocating atmosphere of menace and threat to a sporting event. 

Athens 2004 [in]famously failed to give sufficient weight to the benefits of hosting an Olympic event. Those Summer Games, staged two decades ago, remain the totemic face of misplaced extravagance.

World-class venues purpose-built to host a vast array of Olympic events such as fencing, hockey, softball, canoeing and baseball continue to gather dust to this date. 

The Hellinikon Olympic Softball Stadium, for one, was abandoned. This was one of 36 venues that were either built from scratch or refurbished after Greece learnt that the Olympic Games were returning to their tiny country for the first time since 1896.

For context, Uganda is nearly two times bigger than Greece. Yet the distinction of being one of the smallest countries to host the Olympics would soon morph into a millstone round Greece's neck after it learnt that an estimated €60m was needed as basic upkeep to operate and maintain the 2004 Olympic venues.

The manicured compounds of the aforementioned venues crumbled into an eyesore as Greece's economy went south, incidentally after Athens 2004.

It is quite evident that the Greeks bit off more than they could chew. And maybe Gabon, which is around the same size as Uganda, did likewise when it staged the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals.

Famously remembered as the moment Uganda ended a nearly four-decade absence at the big time, the 2017 Afcon finals played out in the cities of Libreville, Franceville, Oyem and Port-Gentil.

The Cranes were based at the seaport of Port-Gentil. This meant that flights in aging planes to the seaport became a staple for journalists who, like your columnist, had planted their roots in Gabon's sleepy capital of Libreville.  

The flights from Libreville to Port-Gentil were bumpy, but nowhere as discomforting as the lone journey to Oyem where the Cranes played their final group game, a one-all draw with Mali.

This followed identical 1-0 losses suffered at the hands of Ghana and Egypt in Port-Gentil. Stade d'Oyem, where Uganda shared the spoils with Mali, is located in a heavily forested area. Only a military aircraft could transport journalists from Libreville to Oyem. 

On the flight back to the Gabonese capital, a meat market in Oyem where vermin was unabashedly sold dominated conversations of the journalists.

The fate of Stade d'Oyem post-Afcon 2017 also blipped on the conversational radar, with most journalists coming to the conclusion that the facility would have no testimony to past glories sooner rather than later.

While information on the venue in Oyem is at best patchy, the safe bet is on an outcome couched in rust and dust.

Such grim stories of profligacy and waste have forced a rethinking around preparations to host major sporting events.

The highest praise has been bestowed on France after Paris successfully hosted the 2024 Summer and Paralympic Games. A post-Olympic utilisation plan stitched together by France has largely been deemed to be adequate.

There are many lessons for the trio of Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya to learn as, first, the 2025 African Nations Championship and, later, the 2027 Afcon come within eyeshot. 

The three East African countries would not want to bite more than they can chew as they all continue to dither over a way out of their respective debt crises.

Probably, the greatest thing they have done is to join forces and spread the risk. This could yet soften any blows that come the way of the trio. Still, a well thought out post-tournament utilisation plan will suffice. The responsible authorities would do well to take note.