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THE 2010 Castle Lager Premiership, spiced up by the arrival of a number of sponsors, triggered increased interest among the fans with more supporters paying to watch the championship. An average 2 500 fans paid to watch every Premiership game last season and almost US$2 million was grossed from gate receipts during the season.
The gross revenue from the gates was almost six times more than what the PSL teams grossed in a bleak 2010 when only US$323 867 filtered through the turnstiles.
The first Harare Derby between giants Dynamos and CAPS United broke all the records for match attendance as 26 678 people paid to watch the epic encounter.
In reality, there could have been more than 30 000 people at the National Stadium as questionable gate controls, which resulted in many fans forcing their way into the stadium, blighted the accounting process.
Although the individual clubs’ breakdown was not immediately available last night, it’s very clear that the Glamour Boys remain the flagship brand of the Premiership.
Their power to bring in the crowds, especially in a season when they are doing very well, was clearly evident and had a big role to play in pushing the eventual gross attendance figures.
The figures were unveiled after a three-day strategic planning workshop that saw the league coming up with a new five-year plan of action.
According to the statistics, the 16-team Castle Lager Premiership saw a grand total of over half a million people paying their way at the turnstiles to watch the matches by the end of the season.
The figure of 611 103 fans, who paid their way to enter the stadiums, excludes the number of people who used privilege cards and people on duty like the club marshals and security personnel.
A good number of fans also used undesignated entry points to enter the match venues and in the process prejudicing the league of a fortune.
The domestic Premiership had 16 teams competing and on a normal weekend there were supposed to be eight league games.
Each team was supposed to play each other twice and by the end of the season there were 240 league games over the 30 rounds.
This translates to 2 546 people paying their way to watch each game.
However, in reality some matches witnessed larger crowds while for some games, one could actually count on the fingers on two hands, the number of people who paid to watch.
American football, with an average of 66 953 fans per game, is rated as one of the professional sports with the highest average attendance figures in the world.
The average attendance figures for the Zimbabwe Premiership also falls just short of the South African Premiership, which stands at 3 829 fans per match.
Last season, the PSL charged US$3 for the cheapest ticket while the Western grand stand were going for US$5 to US$10.
Zimbabwe’s charges are also comparable to the South African Premiership where the tickets range between R20 and R40.
Attendance figures at South African Premiership games rose due to the hype created by the World Cup in 2010 and the number of fans increased by about 200 for each game.
During the 2011 season, Zimbabwe’s top-flight league managed to raise US$1,9 million in gross from the gates and this was a significant improvement from the US$323 867 raised the previous season.
The boom in the PSL’s fortunes last season could be attributed to the excitement created by the arrival of a flagship sponsor, Delta Beverages, who injected U$2 million into the league.
There was also a vote of confidence in the league with NetOne coming on board to sponsor the Charity Shield while bankers BancABC, the league’s all-weather partners, also bankrolled the Sup8r Trophy.
Last season also witnessed the Premiership re-launch of an inclusive knock-out tournament for the 16 teams after Mbada Diamonds came on board.
But while the league’s fortunes improved from the previous season, there was a cause of concern for some low-key games that virtually crippled some of the small teams.
A match between Blue Ribbon and Shooting Stars in November last year is reported to have receipted only nine fans who paid their way into the stadium.
The game between Blue Ribbon and Monomotapa had 61 fans paying their way in while the rest passed off as service providers.
Black Mambas had 73 people paying to watch their game against Shabanie at home.
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