FCB Nyasa Big Bullets have disclosed that the K46 million realised from their Caf Champions League preliminary round match against Dragon FC from Equatorial Guinea has exposed serious shortfalls in gate management.
The fans turned up in large numbers to watch the match at Bingu National Stadium on Sunday, when Bullets won 1-0 and advanced to the second preliminary round for the first time since 2015.
The revenue is below the K56.4 million that was realised during the Blantyre derby involving Bullets and their rivals Mighty Mukuru Wanderers at Kamuzu Stadium.
Again, the K46 million revenue also failed to surpass the 2022 Airtel Top 8 gross record of K53.5 million between Bullets and Wanderers last year.
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Bullets Chief Administration Officer Albert Chigoga, while expressing dissatisfaction with the revenue, said there were a number of factors that contributed to poor revenue.
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“It [the revenue] does not reflect the huge crowd that thronged to the match venue. A number of factors contributed to this, among them being poor performance of security [people] we hired.
“Another factor is unmanageable state of the match venue. The outward fence is usually vandalised, enabling people to enter for free,’’ Chigoga said.
In addition, Chigoga said it was clear that there was foul play.
“We will come up with a better plan to mitigate the challenges we normally experience at BNS,” he said.
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Chigoga said almost 50 percent of the gross revenue was realised through advance ticket sales.
A standard ticket for the open stand was selling at K2,000 in advance and K3,000 on match day. An advance VIP ticket was selling at K10,000 and K15 000 on match day.
For corporate box, an advance ticket was selling at K20,000 and fetching K25,000 on match day.
BNS, which has a capacity of 40,500 people, was almost full on Sunday. This shows that several people entered the stadium for free.
Sports analyst George Kaudza Masina agreed with Chigoga that the revenue was not a true reflection of the huge crowd.
“The turnout was good but BNS is a bit porous,’’ he said.
Bullets progressed to the second preliminary round 3-0 on aggregate after winning the first leg 2-0 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.
They will face TP Mazembe from the Democratic Republic of Congo in the second round.
