Which off the field reforms would fans like to see in 2012
The transfer season of 2012 has been one of the most interesting in recent memory. Gor Mahia has been a beehive of activity culminating in the arrival and departure of players and futile pursuance of other players .
Club chairman Ambrose Rachier recently announced that 2012 will be a year of reforms aimed at professionalizing the club. Such reforms are aimed at making this club a continental giant like it once was. So the question becomes: What off the field reforms would fans most like to see ?
One area where the club seems to be lagging behind is in the area of merchandizing. To begin with the only item that seems to be readily available for sale is the club matchday jersey. However sales of the club jersey appear to have plummeted because of fans perception that the club is getting a raw deal. The club gets only 10% of the revenue for each jersey sold. The rest goes to Legea. Its a weird scenario where Legea, an Italian sports equipment manufacturer benefits from both having its name and symbol advertized on the club jersey but also takes off with 90% of the revenue. It should be obvious to all that if this deal were to be restructured, jersey sales would skyrocket, benefiting both Gor Mahia , Legea and also Tuzo , all of whom will gain a lot more mileage as more people wear this jersey around town. Restructuring this deal should be a no-brainer.
Further to that , the club should seriously pursue merchandizing other items. Fans will be buy anything associated with the club. How about a calendar with pictures of past legends and present players. Scarves, jackets that are customized with the supporters name or nickname, umbrellas, soccer balls signed by players DVDs. Sometime in the early nineties, the club started to sell bic ball point pens emblazoned with the text “I support Gor Mahia FC”. They were supposed to sell for 10sh each but some cheeky vendors at Nyayo stadium were selling them for Ksh 20 and pocketing the extra 10 bob. This is the kind of fraud that the club should pay attention to.
Another area that is worth reform is the area of accountability. There have been suspicions amongst many fans that sometimes the announced gate collections do not reflect the attendance. The club should do something to assuage this concern.
Secondly, the club should step up its membership recruitment. The best way to kick start this is to get the club’s accounts audited by a reputable accounting firm. When the club is accountable, open and transparent, people will be assured that the money they contribute to the club is not being misappropriated or embezzled and there will be more people who are willing to become paying subscribers. The club can set up a system of membership with silver, gold and platinum membership. Platinum members can be those who pay membership dues of above Ksh 10,000 per year. Gold members pay ksh 5000 and silver members pay ksh 1000 per year and so forth. There are also hundreds of Kogalo fans in the diaspora living in North America, Europe, Australia etc. The club should enhance transparency to entice these fans to contribute to the club and also provide a mechanism for them to send their contributions. The vehicle below belongs to a die hard Kogalo fan currently residing in the frozen north. So die-hard is he that his number plate aka license number reflects the club’s name. And this picture was taken in 2002 when the club was in the doldrums battling relegation. These fans can be convinced to support the club materially and financially.
The number plate of a die-hard Kogalo supporter in the frozen North reflects his fanaticism for the club.
A further area worth reforming is the issue of player loans. There are many young Kogalo players whose development is being stunted by warming the bench. Players like Duncan Owiti Macheda, Roy Okal and could benefit by playing every weekend. If you practice every day but do not get a chance to put your training to use on match day, you will never develop. These guys are talented but we will never know how good they are if they only warm the bench. And in the current dispensation with fans demanding immediate results, there will be no opportunity to field them. So send them on loan to another team in the KPL or in the next level so they can build their confidence and sharpen their skills.
The issue of youth development has been covered in depth in a previous article. Its worth adding that Barcelona’s youth team currently plays in Spain’s second tier tus giving the youngstars much needed game time. . Instead of fielding a U-19 only during the KPL U-19 tournament, Kogalo’s youth team should be playing in the lower divisions every weekend. This will give them match experience and build cohesiveness such that by the time they are seniors, they will have been playing together for years and the coordination between them will be superb. Its no co-incidence that the Thika United U-19 team won the inaugural KPL cup. It was not a hurriedly assembled team like most others. It was a cohesive unit that has been playing together. Back in 1983, the Kogalo youth team drew significant crowds whenever the played. Fans wanted to see what they thought was the next generation. The same can happen today.
Thats yours trulys take on which reforms are neeeded. Now over to other bloggers. What would you like to see done in 2012 ?
Great suggestions admin. I feel that the club needs to find a way to share the proceeds from away matches played in Nairobi. Almost half of the away games are in Nairobi and other institutional clubs are robbing Kogalo followers. The office must sit with KPL to correct this anomaly.
Take a look at this; Sofapaka, Tusker, KCB, Mathare, City Stars and Rangers come with 15 fans each and walk away with a total of about 6 million Gor money. Kogalo must be allowed to sell half the tickets. Going by last season, Ulinzi, Western Stima, Chemelil Sugar, Sony Sugar, Karuturi Sports, Oserian, Muhoroni Youth and Thika United will soon want to play Kogalo in Nairobi too. I think with the bright lawyer we have as Chairman, there must be a way out. Bwana AR work something out.
TV rights can never be the same for all these teams. Even our broda from Nigeria said he was watching Kogalo on Supersport. From Spain to England, France to Germany, Small Teams earn Big, Big Teams earn Bigger. That is how it works. Apart form those who attend matches, Kogalo and AFC games are also the most watched on TV. Bwana AR work something out.
Very good article…very insightful and captivating.
creative village thats true when we travel us fans we realy get araw deal kila saa .then fans get mad .its good uv noted mapema sana.poa sana look at teams like ulinzi ,karuturi,and some nairobi teams wr are not milkcow fr them sorry. bwana na chair sit down na nyamweya na kpl gate fee should be formmart to all away teams .we should do majuu stly.
good ideas we need to start implementation ASAP.
That’s a visionary article.issues,agendas and dreams are normally first put on paper.wth all these brilliant suggestions,its now we need to move in wth speed to bring them into actualization.
I was passing by the gate of City Stadium when Sofapaka was playing Sony and i was suprised because they were charging Ksh100 v.i.p and Ksh50 terases,some weeks later Sofapaka raise there normal ksh100 and ksh 50 to ksh100 and ksh 200 because they were hosting Gor,the office must look at this exploitation or else away matches will be calculated.Another issue which need attention is the stadium Chairman start planning for constraction of our stadium which you promise.
mr.chairman we really miss top flight football in kisumu please this season bring one home match in kisumu city.
I recall fans raised issues with regard to the replica jersey last season. Have those been addresed? Do we now have official acceptable replica jerseys in the market? If so, where are they stocked and sold?
As regards the players,can we the green army family come up with an incentive-scheme for our players by say promising and paying a specified amount for every league match won? Such a scheme would operate in addition to any currenly existing award scheme by the office or private member(s).
Admin thank you for bringing this visionary article…keep it up
I think accountability in finances will be vital in maintaining the confidence and loyalty of the K’Ogallo faithfuls.
With that in place, proper avenues of purchasing club apparels will be good for the club. A website with an online store is one thing that most of us in diaspora are looking for. It will give us a chance to show our K’Ogallo pride by purchasing merchandise.
Good
there are so many replica merchandise all over some even with poor spellings mistakes on them yet we are still spending on them.For instance,a green and white scarf bearing the word KONGALLO on it.honestly what is kongallo?.The most important thing is to come up with a strategic shop that will be selling all the club’s merchandise ranging from umbrellas,caps,shades,watches and so on.possibly even some advance tickets can be sold over there.food for thought.
One reason why the jersey cannot sell no matter the colour is its poor quality.
The poor quality of a kit hits a team psychologically and gives the opponents a psychological advantage.
What really happened to the Gor Mahia green?
Gor Mahia fans are not only in Nairobi and there is no point why the jersies should not be sold in other parts of Kenya. We as fans need a splendid deal and as we buy machendise from the club, we need to assured that the club is also benefitting.
We need jersy here in Eldoret
Odera
guys what they need to tell us is gate fee then next t shirts then shops but if u pile them with kila kitu nobody would say anything on the matter? so hope they are noting what concern wr req them .
Great suggestions from admin and the usual bloggers. Let me add that refereeing shud b greatly improved. We’ve been on the wrong end of some really bad calls from the centre men in the past. Also, our fans need to mature up, esp from Russia, Gor can’t win all matches and we’ll have to accept that losses are part of the game.
We have a playing squad but not a very straight thinking management team! I fear that if things are left to go on this way, the “green army” will turn to “green worms”. Masika left because his welfare was considered secondary to the welfare of the officials! Poor pay! Want to improve Gor? Care for the welfare of the players!
I would like to see fancy hairstyles like those of T.P Mazembe or Bob Mugalia, or even Eric Masika. You know what I mean.