When the All Blacks perform the Kapa E Pango haka, then you
know it’s serious. This battle challenge was designed by the team itself, and
is only deployed in matches of the highest calibre. Two Saturdays ago, the All
Blacks faced off against the Springboks at Ellis Park in Johannesburg, for
bragging rights in one of the most intense rivalries in global sport.
The All Blacks are New Zealand’s rugby team. They dominate
the sport at a global level in outsize proportion to their status as such a
tiny country (population of only 4 million), and one that is so remote (stuck
in the South Pacific, with only Australia for company). The All Blacks are New
Zealand’s face to the world.
The rivalry between the team and South Africa’s Springboks is
legendary.
Games between the All Blacks and Springboks attract television
attention in the millions, with tens of thousands in the stadiums and fan parks
around the games. I had been part of the television audience for decades, and
decided that it was time to take part in the fan experience at the stadium
itself. Which is how I found myself (along with a couple of my best friends) on
the way to Johannesburg for the game. It had been a trip long in the planning,
for the chance to (as they say in the lingo nowadays) tick an item off the
bucket list.
And it is this trip that finally brought home the economic
scale of global sports. The figures are always thrown around – of the amount of
money that goes into sponsorship, the value of television rights, outrageous
players’ salaries – but these had always been a bit arcane and theoretical.
When you’re in the middle of a city on a big match day, it all starts becoming
very clear.
First, the number of Kenyans who had gone down for the game
was in the hundreds. It speaks to two things: the dearth of live,
international, high quality sports that is easily accessible (the only other
option would be to fly eight hours to go and watch football in Europe, or to wait
for irregular cricket tours, again in South Africa). It also shows the
willingness by middle class Kenyans to spend on experiences. Whereas in
previous decades the rush was to acquire material trinkets, there is now recognition
by Kenyans with disposable income that experiences and memories are just as
powerful, which is why there is such an explosion in the leisure market. Sports
tourism is now firmly in that league.
Back to the numbers. By my rough, back-of-the-envelope
calculation, there were probably three hundred Kenyans in Johannesburg. Yes,
not all of them were there primarily for the game, but there were very many
meetings whose scheduling was suspiciously coinciding with the rugby game. Let’s
assume each paid $500 for an economy class ticket, and stayed an average of two
nights in a comfortable bed and breakfast (which is roughly 7 thousand bob a
night). Throw in match tickets at four thousand bob, and the Kenyan contingent
had already spent nearly twenty million shillings to watch the game. This does
not even include the cost of meals, transport, entertainment and match
paraphernalia.
This is not just a phenomenon of rugby-starved Kenyan fans.
South Africa’s population is quite dispersed, thus many tours were organised to
get fans to Johannesburg for the game. These tend to be lavish affairs, with
luxury coaches, good hotel rooms, and memorabilia thrown in. Fans from the
visiting country had also organised tours of their own. All this for a game
that lasted less than three hours.
Many companies have corporate boxes all around the stadium,
where they host executives and clients. These are swanky spaces, with food and
drink and comfortable seating. In Kenya, though, this is a massive lost
opportunity for sports federations and companies.
Rugby has caught on, and all major tournaments will see
hospitality tents being put up all around the action. They are still not
standard, though, and our stadiums are not designed with this need in mind. The
biggest lost opportunity, of course, is in our most popular sport. Companies
will not touch football with a ten-foot pole, except for the brave few who are
shirt sponsors for the big teams. A reputation for violence may be what is
keeping companies away, but by letting these opportunities pass, companies are
letting millions of shillings worth of branding opportunities pass them by.
Everyone has missed the boat on athletics. Whether it is
because Eldoret and Nairobi are so high-altitude that we cannot host
international athletics competitions in those two cities, or because no one has
cottoned on to athletics’ potential (despite the fact that we have the highest
concentration of athletics achievement in the world), we have simply not done
what we should, despite all the noises made about sports tourism. Sea-level
counties such as Mombasa, Kwale and Kilifi, or lower-altitude ones like Kisumu,
have simply ignored the potential. A Kisumu IAAF Diamond League meet would be a
global draw, but planners simply don’t see it.
I cheered the All Blacks on lustily, but, despite the
fearsome haka (the awe-inspiring Polynesian war challenge that the All Blacks
put out before every game) the New Zealanders lost through a last-minute score
by their opponents. I was broke and slightly disappointed. That aside, it was a
legendary game, and the South African rugby team and their economy came out the
winners.
Also published in the Business Daily on 14 October 2014 at http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Opinion-and-Analysis/Kenyan-firms-missing-out-on-sports-tourism/-/539548/2485026/-/xbieghz/-/index.html
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