Ugandan Sports has been around for about Seven Centuries now. Sports in our country mainly gained a footing in the 1950s. So if you count from that time till now, there is a Span of 70 years.
During this time other countries have managed to turn their Sports sector into a highly lucrative industry to the extent that something as small as a Table Tennis ball has to come all the way from China to Uganda. And yes, you guessed right, by the time it reaches here, its cost is almost 3 or 4 times the actual factory price in China, where it was manufactured.
In the past 70 years, our athletes have suffered due to untold poverty despite very wonderful performances for their country. The story of John Akii-Bua is so sad that you may not hold back your tears watching his documentary. He was the very first Ugandan to win an Olympic medal in the 1972 Germany (Munich) Olympic Games. He lived a very poor and miserable life. One could argue that those years were generally quite troublesome for Uganda but even up to today, we are not pushing the correct buttons.
The biggest crime is to fail to work on the ingredients that can help our athletes get out of the poverty entrapment of Sports. This has been our greatest undoing for so many years. In 2018 some of us started talking about Sports TV for Uganda but it was swept under the carpet. In 2019, I myself wrote a book about how Ugandan Sports could become more commercialized and Sports TV was one of the key ingredients. I explained that even with the best Stadium, still, such a stadium was no match for TV.
A 100,000 sitter stadium charging Shs10,000 per game can only generate Shs1 billion. But charging only Shs2,000 to the over 2 million Ugandans that own TVs generates over Shs4 billion. No single stadium can have as many as a million spectators sited in it watching the same game but TV can have as many as 1 billion people watching the same game at the same time. Covid-19 has actually led to a suspension of spectators from our playing Arenas meaning they can only watch our games on TV.
These statistics speak for themselves and very loudly so. Some Patriotic Ugandans have seen the logic and have swung into action to debut Ugandan Sports on TV. This Saturday I watched a show about Ugandan Boxing on Sanyuka TV which is owned by the Next Media group. It was an analysis of the previous weekend games which Sanyuka TV had recorded for both live and delayed broadcast.
The Sanyuka TV crew was on ground to film the matches and this weekend, they have been digesting those games with expert historical Boxers Hajji Juma Nsubuga and Kintu Mike. I really couldn’t believe that finally, Ugandan Sports had gotten to this stage just like foreign sports have been doing. The only reason why Ugandans are drunk on foreign Sports is that every weekend and on many weekdays, our Sports journalists are discussing foreign teams and players like Arsenal, Man U, Bayern Munich, Tiger Woods, Lewis Hamilton, etc. Can you imagine that Hamilton an Athlete of the Formula one Sport that even does not exist in Uganda also has some Ugandans drunk with his heroics?
The thing is, you cannot blame our journalists because these are the only sports on TV. Nearly all our Sports are not on TV. Some of us have campaigned so aggressively for the debut of Ugandan Sports TV and now this dream is finally coming to life. It goes to show that we do have some foresighted Ugandans in this country. This by far is the best Gift Ugandan Sports has ever received in its 70-year history. Some may see it as something small but I can assure you that this is exactly what many thought when our Ugandan musicians started putting their songs on video (TV). The result is that today, you can hardly hear American, Congolese, and South African Music. This same wave has come to Sports and by God’s Grace, it is unstoppable.
The Writer is Jjagwe Robert, the Secretary General of the Union of Uganda Sports Federations and Associations (UUSFA) and President of the Uganda Table Tennis Association (UTTA).