SAFARI SEVENS REPORT CARD: Low fan turnout at Kasarani overshadows Shujaa triumph

Kenya's Shujaa William Ambaka (right) contest for the ball against Western Province's Heremy Paier f during their 2016 Safari Sevens match at Kasarani Stadium on Sept. 25, 2016.[PHOTO:DENNIS OKEYO/STANDARD]

The 21st edition of the Safari Sevens tournament had it all.

Exclusive contracts with sponsors, great service providers, ‘quality’ teams and of course, Kenya Shujaa reclaiming the title - Robin Cahill Trophy.

However, one vital thing was missing from this year’s tournament - the fans.

The event was poorly attended, the worst in recent years, perhaps. Just like last year, the number of service providers at the three-day event that ran concurrently with the Africa Cup Sevens, was almost the same as that of the fans.

For the 60,000-seater Kasarani Stadium to hold just above 6,000 fans should be a worry to many.

Empty seats dotted many parts of the stadium. It was the same case in the tournament’s village. This is where thousands throng for after party jigs. It was not spared either.

Unlike the previous editions, where the tournament’s sponsors took their ‘A’ game to social media, mobile phones and mainstream media just to popularise the event, such machismo was lacking in the past two editions.

The tournament, which was first held in 1996 at the RFUEA Grounds, relocated to Nyayo Stadium in 2011, due to fans’ growing numbers and thin facilities.

Before long, it was again shifted to Kasarani Stadium in 2013, with the competition witnessing one of the highest fans turnout of 85,000. It was the same situation during the 2014 edition, though the attendance dropped down by 30,000.

But Kenya Rugby Chairman Richard Omwela believes delayed marketing funding and publicity, coupled with the venue distance, could be a reason for the dwindling numbers

“We didn’t have funds to hype the tournament in good time. But it was encouraging to see the numbers that were here despite there being no marketing for it. So, there are no apologies for it. We just didn’t have funds to market the Safari Sevens, but I was happy to see the people who turned up for the tournament,” Omwela said.

“It was not a question about Frontiers doing the marketing, but a question of having the funds in time for some of the programmes to run. We were able to get some funds, but they came a little too late. All the planning needs time to execute and this was not any different.”

“In terms of the event itself, we got a budget of about Sh5m for marketing of the event. We could have done it, but again, it was the issue of a chicken and egg situation. Do we spend the Sh5m and don’t recover it? Or do we hang on the Sh5m and use it on other programs?”

KRU are considering holding next year’s tournament either at Nyayo Stadium or its traditional RFUEA Grounds.

“Moving back to RFUEA or Nyayo is a possibility we are looking at. You all know we were here because of our major sponsors Safaricom and since their sponsorship of this stadium ends this month, there will be nothing to attract us back here,” said Omwela.

“And now that Safaricom are just support sponsors, we want to see where else can we take the tournament. This is a 60,000-seater stadium; averagely we do between 10,000-12,000. So it’s a strategy we are going to look at and see whether we can move to another venue.

“Obviously, Kasarani is not very close to town, therefore, there are transport hitches. We accept that we should have done better. We want to look at other possibilities.”

“Going into the future, we have decided that it is better to have five sponsors, who will give you Sh15m, than have one, who will give Sh40m. We just need to have consistency.”