DeMbare get Rufaro offer

Dynamos, the Premier Soccer League’s biggest cash cow over the years, just like most of the top-flight teams, do not own their sta­diums.
Instead Dynamos, their city rivals CAPS United and all the other clubs based in the capital, have to part with 20 percent of gross gate takings every time they play at any of the council venues like Rufaro, Gwanzura and Dzivarasekwa.
But it emerged yesterday that Dynamos have actually been ignoring a huge carrot dangled before them by the City Fathers, which could ease their constant financial challenges when Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda revealed that club in the capital could be offered long-term leases.
Masunda has, since assuming office as mayor, repeatedly challenged clubs in the capital to take advantage of the existing offer to lease council stadiums for up to 99 years.
The mayor once again made the offer in remarks on Monday when he addressed the Hunyani chapter of the Rotary Club and used Dynamos, as the country’s biggest club, as an example.
Masunda said Dynamos could take advan­tage of their status and achieve the same results scored by former European champi­ons Liverpool who entered into a 99-year lease of Anfield from the city of Liverpool.
“We have made an offer to Dynamos to make Rufaro their home base on a long-term basis. We have a similar arrangement at Royal Harare golf course,” Masunda said.
Masunda also said Dynamos could use facilities at the stadium, which was turned into an artificial turf in 2008, to raise funds.
“The smarter way of doing it is to have seri­ous people to manage Dynamos. Those peo­ple do not include George Shaya, Bernard Marriot and Richard Chiminya.
“We need to see equally serious people at Dynamos. It pains me at the end of every sea­son to see Dynamos with a begging bowl,” Masunda said.
The Mayor was worried that DeMbare could have lost an opportunity to seal the lease agreement when they fired Farai Munetsi from the chairmanship.
He said Munetsi’s executive was at an advanced stage of securing a life changing deal at the Glamour Boys.
Munetsi confirmed his executive was in the process of securing US$5 million for the revamp of Rufaro.
“We wanted to develop the stadium. We wanted a 99-year lease with the council,” he said.
The project would have seen the upgrading of housing estates around the stadium and the construction of a proper training ground for the Dynamos junior teams on the open grounds opposite Pioneer Cemetery.
He said the interior of Rufaro was going to be upgraded with the construction of sports shops, a restaurant, a clubhouse as well as a gym.
Munetsi said despite his ouster he remains an ardent Dynamos supporter and wishes for the success of the team, the current executive and board.
However, a ray hope that the lease deal will be pursued filtered yesterday when Dynamos secretary-general Ray Kazembe indicated that it was a matter that his management team had put high on their agenda.
Kazembe said the Dynamos leadership had also noted the huge benefits the club stands to reap from a long term lease of Rufaro and would want an agreement thrashed before July.
The Harare businessman was not yet in the Dynamos management structures when the discussions between the Glamour Boys and the Harare City Council started.
“”Its ((the lease) something that we have spoken about and we are keen to resuscitate it. There is need for us to follow up on the talks and about two months ago we spoke about it and felt we really need to pursue it.
“I was not in office when it all started but I would need to get an appraisal on how far they had gone with the deal.
“We believe as Dynamos that of we can get that lease it could surely go a long way to ease our revenue worries.
“We can also do our own improvements on Rufaro once we enter into such an agreement with the City Council.
“I am advocate of moving with technology and there are a number of things that could be done to improve the state of the stadium for instance we need exactly how many peo­ple are in the stadium and we can even make entry at the turnstiles electronic,’’ Kazembe said.
The DeMbare secretary-general said although they would need to invest some capital into improving the stadium, he reck­oned that the Harare giants would immedi­ately reap the rewards for such an investment.
“I think there are many ideas we can imple­ment which can generate revenue for both Dynamos and the City council.
“In South Africa entry to the stadiums is electronic and tickets can be bought at Com­puticket and it makes life easier for every­body… that is where the world is going and we cannot afford to continue to lag behind.
“If we put 10 electronic gates, it may cost us US$40 000 to install but by the end of the sea­son the system would have paid for itself with less human capital costs and yet speedy and more efficient way of managing the fans’ entry, ’’ Kazembe said.
Kazembe attributed their failure to speed up discussions with the City fathers to the fact that “we had put much of our attention to the Champions League campaign.
“I don’t think we will have many challenges in the Confederation Cup, the planning will be a lot easier and we know what to expect in Africa now,’’ Kazembe said. But with Mayor Masunda declaring Harare City ready to do business, Dynamos can only continue to take a lackadaisical approach to the venture at their own peril. There is also a strong feeling in the domes­tic football fraternity that once DeMbare take the lead, they would open the windows for the rest of the top-flight teams, which are based in the capital.