It’s been over 10 days since the Namuwongo Blazers publicly came out and announced that they would be pulling out of the National Basketball League.
This came 5 days after FUBA announcing major changes to the National Basketball League including the fact that the 2023 Champion would not be considered for BAL and that the New Season shall commence on 20th January 2024.
The Blazers pulling out sparked a lot of debate, some were in favor, others not others didn’t have where to fall.
Now that the dust has settled down, it is high time we delve deep into how we come to this perplexity.
FUBA
About a month or so ago, FUBA received Directives from FIBA (international body) telling them to align to the International Calendar. FUBA of course did not really have much of a choice as most of the international activities had been conflicting with the local Calendar and that meant we had to put our activities on hold.
Fuba as the governing body had a responsibility to inform the clubs about these New Directives immediately, but they were hesitant and by the time a letter surfaced online, it was late and many clubs were caught unaware which brought a lot of questions.
Fuba made an error by not involving all the stake holders in their decision making and this affected many clubs.
Nam Blazers
Some say their decision was right while some think otherwise. However, the decision looked more emotional than planned.
The Blazers came so close to taking down the “dictator” City Oilers, last year as the series went up to game 7. It is very much understandable that they had a very big chance to win the championship but it was not guaranteed.
The Nam Blazers assert that their Management and Sponsors had set out to achieve qualification for the 2024 BAL and with that off the table, there’s nothing to play off.
From this perspective, the are very right but what would have happened if they had not qualified, would the sponsorships go away? What next for the sponsors if the Blazers don’t play the playoffs?
Fans
It is no doubt that Namuwongo Blazers gave a new life to the National Basketball League in 2022 with the overwhelming numbers that showed up to the games more so in the playoffs.
The Blazers franchise hasn’t been around for very long, but they have made such a huge impact on Ugandan basketball, the community and sports in general. The Blazers have grown to have a very huge fan base in Namuwongo and allover the country and these fans want to see their team compete.
Did the Nam Blazers management think about the fans while the reached their decision? What will Blazers fans do if their team is not participating in the playoffs? Do they join other teams, stop following Basketball till next season ? Alot is yet to be revealed.
Sponsors
Nam Blazers has a couple of sponsors and it is unknown whether they were on board with the pulling out decision. Sponsors saw a opportunity with the humongous amount of people who came to the playoffs last year and with the availability of TV (NBS Sport) broadcasting the games live.
With the Blazers out, the number of people turning up may not be as much thus less visibility and less merchandise sales. Additionally, even the number of people watching the games (both at the Arena and on TV) will be lower compared to last year.
All the sponsors, Nam Blazers sponsors, NBL sponsors, TV sponsors, other teams sponsors will be affected by this pulling out .
Financial
Nam Blazers games attracted the highest number of fans (1000+) during last year’s playoffs. FUBA and the clubs must have used that opportunity to make huge sums of money but since they were also shocked, they may not have made enough.
Rumors had it that this year, FUBA was planning on doubling the entrance fee from 10,000 to 20,000. Now let’s make some maths, if the Blazers played about 7 games in the playoffs and attracted averagely 1000+ fans per game.
1000×20,000 = 20,000,000 on a day. 20,000,000×7 =140,000,000 in the 7 games. There’s is alot of potential revenue for both FUBA and the Clubs.
It is during last year’s playoffs that the club also sold most of their merchandise, this means that they will also lose out on that.
Conclusion
The Blazers pulling out does a lot of harm and barely any good. It is understandable that People invest in large sums of money to run these clubs and expect returns, but opting out doesn’t get one any returns as it does more damage. The players are affected, Sponsors and so much more.
Even if Fuba made mistakes, the best decision would have been for all stakeholders to come to a round table and have negotiations on how to forge a way forward.
Nam Blazers isn’t the only club that was affected and it would have been far much better if clubs, in unison, came up with a collective statement rather than Namuwongo being a lone voice.
Leave a Reply