Why StarTimes surrendered KCCA stadium naming rights to MTN
New frontiers. Sakajja in the driving seat at KCCA. PHOTO | COURTESY
The blissful sponsorship marriage between KCCA and telecom giants MTN gained another layer of trust, last week, as the two entities agreed on a stadium naming right deal.
StarTimes, a digital television servuce privider that had held the Lugogo naming rights for three years coughing Shs400m per year, chose not to renew their contract once it expired last year.
“We saw it as duplication to sponsor the Uganda Premier League and at the same time sponsor stadiums. We agreed not to renew but that is not to say we didn’t get value for money in the time the stadium was called StarTimes Stadium,” Ismail Lule, the brand and marketing manager Startimes Uganda, told Daily Monitor.
The stadium will now be renamed the MTN Omondi Stadium in honour of Philip Omondi, a club and Cranes legend who gave so much to football in Uganda.
MTN has signed a 10-year deal.
“As the leading supporter of sports in the country, we considered it befitting that we further cement our association with this club,” Somdev Sen, MTN Uganda chief marketing officer, said.
“Phillip Omondi had an illustrious career, so MTN and KCCA felt that his name should be kept alive in the home where he spent much of his career.”
Stadium construction
The partnership will be executed as part of the club’s bigger plans to upgrade its home whose upgrade works starts in earnest next month, club chairman Martin Ssekajja revealed.
“We are done with securing the contractor and soon the first phase of the construction will start on the VIP wing before we embark on the second phase that will include the road terraces and Naguru wing,” Ssekajja said.
He remained coy on the amount MTN is injecting into upgrade of the stadium to a 10,000 seater capacity but said it will be a concerted effort by the club, generous fans and the sponsors.
The club’s projected budget for the stadium upgrade is Shs10b, with Shs2.5b already secured from KCCA budget.
Sekajja said KCCA will play its upcoming league and Caf matches at the stadium whose construction will be done in a modular manner.
Who is Omondi?
The legendary Cranes striker played for KCCA between 1973 and 1979 and was the first Ugandan to sign for a European club (Rennes in Ligue 1) and later Bursaspor in Turkish topflight.
