Time for Gor Mahia to get creative in financing the club
Gor Mahia Chairman Ambrose Rachier was interviewed recently and he mentioned that the club makes no money from sale of merchandize. Thats right. Gor Mahia makes exactly zero Kenya shillings from sales of the ubiquitous jersey. This must come as a surprise to many fans considering that almost half the fans who show up at the stadium these days are spotting a Kogalo jersey. So where exactly does this money go ? Chairman Rachier blamed it on piracy.
Rachier estimates that Sh72million is needed every year with Sh2.6 million spent on salaries each month. “We make roughly Sh1million per month from gate collections while we get Sh350,000 per month as grants from KPL and Supersport. When we combine all this, they will not be enough for us to handle the club,” said Rachier the people newspaper.
Tuzo suddenly decided not to extend the contract that saw them hand K’Ogalo Sh29million per year since 2011 and that has left a huge financial burden to the reigning league champions. It came as a surprise to most fans. A six month notice from Tuzo would have been good. Instead Gor Mahia got about 3 months and it was at a time when officials were still in the throes of campaigning.
The club officials deserve credit for seeking other sponsorship deals. They have been busy trying to strike deals with various In the meantime however they must seek other avenues to raise money.
Merchandize sales
Necessity is the mother of invention. The first order of business must be to find a way to make money from merchandizing.Once this is sorted out, fans should be urged to show their support for the club by buying official club merchandize. If Piracy is indeed the problem, then fans should be warned on where to buy and where not to buy merchandize.
Perhaps Gor Mahia should resort to selling merchandize only at specific locations as is done with match tickets. This way fans know where to buy and where not to buy merchandize. Eventually the pirates will go out of business if the fan base and the general public is educated on where to buy merchandize.
And selling merchandize should not be restricted to jerseys : Last year it was reported that a bookstore in Westlands was selling Gor Mahia Christmas cards. The club was making no money from the sales. But even when informed, the response was along the lines of “It is good that the club is getting some publicity“.
Membership and Financial Transparency
Secondly, the club must get aggressive about its membership drive. As has been pointed out many times on this column, there are thousands of fans who would contribute KES 500, 1000 or more. There are fans in the diaspora who would be willing to send money to the club regularly. Perhaps the biggest hindrance to this endeavor has been a perceived lack of transparency. Some fans want to contribute but they wonder where the money ends up going. Does it end up in some officials bank account ? This is not clear. if the club were to become serious about opening its books to a public auditor then publishing audit findings, you will find Gor Mahia fans from Kenya and all over the world ready to send money to the club.
The time is now
The Gor Mahia fraternity must work urgently to stabilize the financial situation at the club. Putting all their efforts into finding a sponsor could be disastrous. It may take several months or a year before another sponsor comes on board. By then the club may have already faced a real player revolt over unpaid salaries. And it may come at a critical juncture such as when Gor Mahia are preparing to go to the CECAFA club cup
Some of us work in the corporate world, it Is very diffuclt to get a sponsor half way through the year becuase most initiatives have been identified and sealed, unless gor mahia is promising heavens, i dont see that happening for rest of the season.
As we speak, the club is officially broke and if we fans don’t come in fast, FIFA rules are clear, club may be relegated at the end of the season due to financial misconduct not forgetting freeze own recruitment among other matters. .this is serious stuff! So, it doesn’t matter even if we win the league in 2014!
EC please stand up and be counted ! Monthly salary of Kshs 3 million for technical bench and players for the month of April is the most important thing at the moment, the rest can wait………….
Will the real die hard fans salsa stand up and be counted !
This is not good news but we have to move on. Chest thumping must now cease
First of all, EC needs to come out clear. AR is saying they collect an average of Kshs 1m per month. Someone is telling us that last year gate collection was Kshs 9m and this is in an official report to the members. This is a kick in our teeth. We really want to help but surely, when the figures are being halved? What happens. Sometimes I sit in the stands and here the culprits in EC fighting themselves over who ate more than the others from “last week’s match” Then I am expected to pay Kshs 1,000 for main stands for a match when I know it is heading to someone’s pocket undeservedly. Is there a way we can make these goons at the EC accountable before someone comes up with a proposal to get money from us?
Guys, let us wake up to the reality that the EC is taking advantage of our loyalty to make huge gains for themselves. And they don’t hide it. So, let us come up with ideas of getting these guys to account for the money they are collecting from fans and sponsors. Merchandise alone will not help even though it will ease a bit of pressure. How many people change their jerseys in one year? Gor is the only club which sticks with only one jersey for many years and that is black and white. Can we have a home and an away jersey and this should be modified yearly so we start bragging with them (see Arsenal, AFC Leopards, Man Utd etc)
@pmawengo, do we even have money for those merchandise jerseys in the first place? ..a chicken and an egg situation if you ask me!
As per deal, It is tuzo who was financing all the merchandise, infact going forward gor Mahia will not be wearing tuzo branded jersey in all its matches, which raises another question……does the club have jersey that are not tuzo branded for their next match against KCB ? You will not be surprised by the answer.
LET GOR MAHIA ROLL OUT A RECRUITMENT DRIVE USING EQUITY BANK.WE REGISTER 100 THOUSAND MEMBERS REGISTERING AT 1500 /- KSH. PAYABLE IN THE FIRST SIX MONTHS AT 250 /- KSH. PER MONTH.THIS TOTALS TO 1500. × 100 000 = 150 MILLION KENYA SHILLINGS. THIS IDEA REQUIRES SERIOUS MARKETING THRO RADIO RAMOGI ,LAKE VICTORIA ,NAM LOLWE ,GULF RADIO, SUNSET RADIO HOMA BAY, RADIO JAMBO …..GOR MAHIA HAS THE GOODWILL.THEN LET US GRADUALLY BECOME A SPORTS CLUB INVOLVING IN HOCKEY BASKETBALL RUGBY CRICKET AMONG OTHERS. CANT WE HAVE RACHIER SERIOUSLY DOING THIS ….JOKANYAM WAKONY GOR MAHIA DUTO NYALORE GI NYING YESU…
Yes Lets accept that there is no sponsorship coming and work on other financing channels. I agree with #5 Tom Ochieng hapo juu. Good idea
I have tried having audience with Rachier but all in vain. Some of us are experts in busines to busines growth. We are willing to turn around the fortunes of the club.
Its upto u Rachier to reply viable mails you have received.
With Rachier as th club’s chairman, u’l never have a better Gor devoid of corruption.
Mr Chairman, you are a lawyer who everybody envy. You have seen pple wanting to pay & the amount is huge. Audited accounts is the only thing they want done by Independent Audit Company Every year to us as members who will be contributing. Do we need to go to Church pray over this?Thru what Tom Ochieng above has said,You have the money but it seems whatever we write here is just fun. The Sec.Gen has financial background, cant u pple act? or u want to keep creating crisis in order to eat. There are pple who would always want to create crisis to do dirty business. Organise your team & let them do what u want, you’ll be remembered for this by all even in years to come.