The National Sports Authority has responded to Togbe Afede’s criticism on why the Accra Stadium was closed in December to sporting activities, especially to football teams for the place to be prepared for musical concerts.
In an explanation, Prof. Peter Twumasi, the Director General of the National Sports Authority (NSA) said football teams do not pay enough to the NSA to even cover the cost of running the stadium on match days, compared to the revenue made from other activities such as musical concerts.
He said the NSA lacked the required funds to run and manage the various national sport facilities including the sports stadia hence the resort to renting these facilities for recreational purposes to accrue the needed funds to run it.
The authority said football activities fetches it less than GH¢1000 in gate proceeds at each stadium each match day, which is woefully inadequate to run such huge edifices.
It must be placed on record that NSA receives meager funds from the Ministry, it said.
In 2022, NSA received only GH¢287,000 for its goods and services across the country to manage all sporting disciplines and facilities.
It must be noted that Sporting Clubs don’t pay to use our stadia, but just pay 10% of gate proceeds to NSA per match day which in most times amounts to less than One Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢1,000).
It costs NSA almost GH¢10,000 to prepare one major stadium for a match.
We pay about GH¢80,000 per month for ECG bills in Accra Sports Stadium alone.
Same in Kumasi, Cape Coast and Tamale stadia. Water, sanitation and security together cost NSA almost GH¢50,000 per month per each of the stadia.
The closure has led to Hearts and Olympics playing their home games at the Baba Yara Stadium, while Accra Lions have settled on the WAFA Park in Sogakope.
About Post Author
