Chief Executive Officer of eGotickets, George Festus Mensah, says the introduction of the e-ticketing platform in the Ghana Premier League has not contributed to poor attendance at the various match venues.
He suggests the Ghana Football Association and the league clubs rather look at timing and scheduling of matches as a strategic way to boost patronage of matches.
eGotickets is a digital ticketing platform in charge of the production and management of electronic match day tickets to access government-owned sports facilities during football games in Ghana. The platform has come under public scrutiny in recent times for not improving their online system to make purchasing of tickets to watch the Ghana Premier League much easier.
This was after Ghana’s top-flight league experienced a downward trend in terms of spectatorship, a development that triggered Nhyira and Luv FM in Kumasi to embark on a radio campaign to highlight the problems associated with poor attendance in the local league, and champion recommendations to improve the situation.
e-ticketing was first introduced to Ghana football in March 2022, when Ghana played host to Nigeria in the 2022 World Cup playoffs.
Checks reveal the National Sports Authority (NSA) recorded its highest-ever ticket sales from that match, realizing GHS 1.4m in revenue.
Experts believe the introduction of the online ticketing system curtailed the long-standing issue of alleged ticket racketeering at the gates of stadia.
This has been attributed to the highest revenue recorded.
Despite its gains, the system has its challenges that must be enhanced, according to Ghanaian soccer fans.
Speaking to Richard Smith Donkor in an interview with Nhyira FM in Kumasi, CEO of eGotickets, George Festus Mensah, disagreed with the assertion that e-ticketing is contributing to the low patronage of the league.
He stressed the authorities must be strategic in scheduling and timing of games.
“Those school of thoughts should always bring the numbers (revenue) and compare to the past before e-ticketing was introduced.
“The issue is about timing and scheduling of our games, venue changing and late fixtures, it is a problem.
“We have done all these recommendations to the authorities because as we speak now, we should know next week’s fixtures, next two weeks’ fixtures, we should have done all that.
“If Ghanaians are made to purchase tickets last minute and the teleco faces a challenge, what happens?
“We should be able to allow people to purchase their tickets ahead of time.
“So, all these are things we should work on; fixtures and venues for home teams, how you position some of the games, the supporters will come.
“So, the solutions are a lot and we need to work on all that, certainly, it’s not an e-ticketing problem,” he stated.
The common hashtag being used for the campaign is #FillGPLCenters.