Yesterday in the full Council meeting the DA pushed through a recommendation to sponsor a match between Liverpool and Ajax as a late item at a total cost of R20 million to the ratepayers. R15 million goes straight to Liverpool. Ticket sales is projected at R8 million. We are also paying for things like appearance fees and hotel accommodation and transport for Ajax even though they operate and live in the City of Cape Town. Although debate was allowed, this took place at about 5pm last night when everybody was ready to go home and all the public and journalists were long gone.
Comments suggest that both Liverpool and Ajax lies at the bottom of their divisions and are not really attractive to watch. Once again the financials are speculative as there are actual guarantees of loss with no possible way to even remotely cover cost. This suggests very poor negotiation on behalf of the city or utter incompetence. While we all want the stadium to be sustainable, those leading the sustainable campaign seem to lack basic skills in mathematics.
This issue was championed by Grant Pascoe and should be viewed in light of the fact that he was the same person who refused to sponsor the African cup of Nations a few months ago, based on the fact that it would be a liability to the rate payers of about {R4 million}. We need to understand why is the Liverpool match different? How can one use the same reasoning with different outcomes for the ratepayers? Pascoe suggested that the Tourism industry would benefit, why was this not relevant to the African cup of Nations a few months ago? It does seem that “what is good for the goose may not be good for the gander”.
Cllr Yagyah Adams
Cape Muslim Congress