Namboole Stadium an accident waiting to happen

At the end of July, after Fufa announced its gate charges, I wrote in this column, saying the ordinary person had been out priced of the game. I also felt Fufa could make more money by bringing down the price of the ordinary ticket and hiking the VIP ticket. My overall take, however, was that Fufa had been lulled into complacency by the size of the opportunity and wasn’t being creative enough.

But in no way was I suggesting that this creativity extends outside the boundaries of what is legal or healthy, as is being alleged by some people who are taking Fufa to court over being denied access to the stadium, because it was full.

These people want Fufa to explain how a stadium could fill up before all tickets printed were accounted for.

The logical conclusion here is that there were more tickets in circulation than there were seats in Namboole.

I know that the onus of proof is on he who accuses and this is going to be a tricky one to navigate for the plaintiffs. But sometimes winning an argument isn’t half as important as appreciating the dangers in particular events and ensuring they are avoided. And believe you me, Namboole is a disaster waiting to happen. And unless we take measures to address crowd control, we shall soon be contending with the impact of a mega disaster.

Like anyone who was at Namboole will tell you, one didn’t need a barcode machine to notice that the stadium was overflowing. The capacity of the stadium is measured based on a sitting arrangement that places people a few centimeters apart. But, by 3pm, two hours before kickoff, there was no elbow room, anywhere in Namboole.

Even then, those of us who got in before 1pm continued to get social media transmission, about the numbers piling up at the entrance. And the closer we got to the 5pm kickoff time, the more restless the crowd got.

Fortunately, a few tear gas canisters managed to arrest the situation and avoid a repeat of what happened a few years ago when a crowd charged the gates and made a beeline for the stands, in total disregard of Andrew Luwandagga’s pleas about the game being broadcast live on television.

One day, however, those crowds will swell into a mass that security or the physical infrastructure can’t handle. We have seen that happen in places with better policing experience or stadium infrastructure, like City Stadium in Johannesburg.

Is that what Fufa is waiting for? Must it take a disaster to jolt us into action? Unfortunately, this is what will happen, and with fatal consequences, if crowd control continues to be sacrificed at the altar of revenue generation.

Therefore, Fufa ought to be looking at avoiding a disaster from overcrowding. For not only would such a disaster dry up their main revenue stream, as people choose safety over match attendance, the inevitable banning of Namboole would almost certainly deal a fatal blow to the game in Uganda.

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