A financial analyst, Sydney Casely-Hayford has made a call on both government and other sports stakeholders to draw valuable marketing lessons from the just ended Banku and Ayittey bout to turn the fortunes of the country’s local sports around.
Months of massive promotion and bragging by both boxers saw thousands of Ghanaians throng the Accra Sports stadium to witness the “Judgment Night” bout.
Briamah Kamako, aka Bukom Banku emerged the eventual winner after a thrilling 12-rounds.
Speaking on the Citi FM’s The Big Issue, Mr Casely-Hayford lamented over the manner in which sports was being managed in the country.
He admonished stakeholders to take a cue from the just ended bout and rely on existing regional rivalries to draw fans to games.
“What I saw at the Bukom Banku and Ayittey Powers bout showed me that where you can generate intense rivalry and you can hype a situation up, you will get an audience of such size that you now have an opportunity to create a market that will grow and become important,” he remarked.
He indicated he is particularly passionate about the matter because, Ghana’s sports arena is a fertile ground through which revenue can be generated but “we are not doing well because we have football matches and the only one that is critical to anybody is Hearts versus Kotoko and the rest of them isn’t significant.”
The financial analyst also expressed concern about the remuneration of players in the local league and advised stakeholders to turn the fortunes of Ghanaian sportsmen around.
He asked, “can you imagine, our footballers are being paid GHC 35 a month? Bukom Banku and Ayittey Powers have shown we can pack a football stadium with everyone paying.”
Mr Casely-Hayford observed that despite the economic hardships being experienced by majority of Ghanaians, people were prepared to pay between GHC 50 to GHC 100 for the Banku and Powers game, adding that, Ghana has an economy that revolves around the private sector “and this is something that promoters of boxing and football must start looking at.”
By: Benjamin Epton Owusu/citifmonline.com/Ghana