KHOZA LAMENTS FALLING CROWDS
MUCH as the longstanding broadcast partnership between the Premier Soccer League (PSL) and SuperSport has been lauded for boosting the clubs, PSL chairman Irvin Khoza is still seeking answers to why the fans have stayed away.
Khoza warned that the evolution of smartphones and social media also threatens to take away the few who are making it to the stadium.
“There’s a question I’m asking you to help me answer: is it because of live television that people are staying at home and [are] not at the stadium? It is a challenge but give me one country that doesn’t have this challenge,” said Khoza on the sidelines of the celebrations on Saturday to mark the league’s 10-year partnership with the pay channel.
“Whether this a fact or not, I don’t know. I need this to be tested because if you look at England, it is the same supporters that are occupying the same seat. They can’t access live TV. Our people have got options and they can stay at home and scroll the channels.
“We ask ourselves what new innovation can we can do regardless of this live television. What can we do extra to create the vibe? We’ve got social media [and] in future we won’t see football on our [TV] screens, it will be on our smartphones; people won’t come to the stadium anymore,” warned Khoza.
“It’s a challenge and I’m launching it with the members [of the league] to say let’s talk about it because live TV is also good with a full stadium.”
Somehow, it is a different case with the PSL reserve league, the Multichoice Diski Challenge that still attracts even capacity crowds despite all the matches been beamed live on TV.
“Most of the [premier division] clubs are no longer community teams, that is why you see some are struggling to attract the crowds because the communities cannot identify with the team,” observed Khoza.
“With the players in the MDC, the communities can identify with those players.”
Khoza warned that “if we don’t come up a better product to attract the internet revolution – the internet democratisation of information – then your content will be obsolete”.
“Therefore, it’s important to have a product that is appealing to the youth because the future is the youth.”
Apart from improved monthly grants for clubs, Khoza said the broadcast deal has boosted the league in adopting club licensing, which assists to professionalise football within the clubs.
“SuperSport has encouraged us as club chairmen to invest in the academies and MDC is the stage,” he added.
Khoza said his desire was for the PSL to be the league of choice. He could not commit on when the negotiations for a new deal would start, with the current deal lapsing next year.
Expectations are that the renewal could potentially double club’s monthly grants, which is currently at R1.5-million per club. The current deal is believed to be in the region of R2-billion, which was an improvement on the initial agreement of R1.6-billion in 2007.
“They [SuperSport] see the potential in the PSL for them to say ‘we’re going to be with you for the next 10 years’. It’s not easy for a corporate to say this but it’s up to us to keep up with the momentum to professionalise ourselves. This is a motivating influence.”
“Is it because of live television that people are staying at home?