Is electronic ticket system worthless?

It is over five months since the first attempt to deploy electronic tickets at soccer stadiums in Tanzania was halted with neither credible reason nor serious explanation.

The new ticketing system was first tested in December 2013 for friendly matches played at Azam Football Club’s Chamazi Stadium in suburban Dar es Salaam.

A second test, which looked like a more direct way of introducing the system, was deployed during some rounds of the second half of the Mainland premier soccer league a month later before it was hurriedly suspended.

Random surveys show that most soccer enthusiasts saw the halting of the ticketing system as a positive move meant to pave the way for much-needed improvements before it could be reintroduced.

But five months is too long a period merely to work on improvements to a ticketing system. No wonder that the majority of soccer stakeholders are convinced that the system is probably useless and scrapping it altogether would be a splendid decision.

Indeed, given the lengthy silence from the Tanzania Football Federation, most people say they had completely forgotten about the whole idea and would not care much if the system were to be put in place yet again.

The worst thing to note is that there is no feedback mechanism through which to keep soccer stakeholders posted on what is going on with “preparations” to reintroduce the electronic ticketing system.

It has become common with the current TFF leadership to scrap plans implemented by the immediate former office bearers at the Mainland Tanzania soccer governing body – although their Zanzibar counterparts do not fare any better.

This is right from the offloading of the secretary general and the national team coach even before ending their contractual tenures, the uncalled-for shifting of the TFF president’s office and the introduction of a strategy to “revitalise” Taifa Stars.

These developments have made many soccer watchers jump to the conclusion that even the electronic ticketing system, which was generally seen as an excellent solution to the theft of gate collections, can as well be easily scrapped.

It was by sheer luck that an MP recently cared to seek explanation in the National Assembly in Dodoma on the pluses and minuses of deploying the e-ticketing system. TFF office bearers must know for sure that their honeymoon has already ended and it is high time they proved their worth as credible leaders.

It is obvious that what is being realised as gate collections at soccer stadiums hardly tallies with the number of spectators flocking there. The absence of credible explanation about the perceived discrepancy leads to the assumption that part of the revenue benefits crafty individuals, including dishonest officials.

Time has come for all concerned to work take measures to ensure that pilferage of the revenue does not surface come the new season, which kicks off in August.
If electronic tickets are not a reliable enough solution, then there is every need to devise another, as what we want is to get a permanent end to the age-old problem.

Soccer is too important for Tanzania for its fate to be left in the hands of people who do not care about how to groom it into a booming entertainment industry.