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Impressively, Busoga United had the highest average number of attendees for their games (900), and recorded a peak spectator attendance slightly above 2000 spectators at Kakindu Stadium, albeit the team struggling for survival.
If you watch footage of the Uganda Premier League from 15 years ago, there is something that is starting to vanish; empty stands.
The local game continues to slowly grow from it troubled days between in the 2000s and early 2010s, when local club football hit its lowest ebb in terms of spectator attendance.
The league is becoming a more popular than it has been in recent memory, and last season’s deep title run involving eventual champions Vipers SC, KCCA FC and SC Villa a proper advert for its growing reputation.
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12:04 - 15.07.2023
FOOTBALL Villa's $1.25M sponsor revealed, worked with Juventus
The same company has previously partnered with Italian and European football giants Juventus between 2018-2022 and Germany's VFL Wolfsburg in 2015.
Using the proverbial eye-test, it is easy to draw out the fact that attendances numbers have really improved, though there is still a long way to go to return to former standards.
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For the first time this week, the league secretariat released official attendance numbers for the 2022/23 season, providing a clearer insight into just how much fans are turning up for live games.
In its detailed statistical report, the secretariat noted; There has been tremendous growth in the number of match attendance.”
“Moving forward; clubs are encouraged to have record of their fans for the league to conform with the Fan Club Membership and perceptions of team brand equity in football.”
The report indicated that top flight games averaged 516 spectators over the 210 matches played throughout the season.
Impressively, Busoga United had the highest average number of attendees for their games (900), and recorded a peak spectator attendance slightly above 2000 spectators at Kakindu Stadium, albeit the team struggling for survival.
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10:41 - 16.07.2023
FOOTBALL Isabirye, Micho, Mutebi and the distinguished class of the Salongos
Vipers joined KCCA FC, SC Villa and Express in the league of clubs that have won the Uganda Premier League and Uganda Cup double.
At capacity though, clubs recorded average attendances of 2773 spectators, pointing to the under developed nature of out stadiums, with majority of the venues where league games are played can hold on average 2000 fans at capacity.
Only the Vipers’ St. Mary’s Stadium and the Muteesa II Stadium able to hold spectator numbers beyond 10,000.
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Last season’s top three had average attendance numbers of 770 spectators for their games, and were involved in three of the highest attended games.
There were fears that introduction of matches on TV, combined with the off peak kick off times in the middle of the week would encourage fans to stay at home.
But the opposite seems to be true, with availability of football games driving the popularity of the league.
The four top selling fixtures drew average attendances of 7375 spectators. These fixtures included mainly KCCA and Vipers.
Again, basing on UPL numbers, Vipers 1-0 victory over KCCA at Kitende under the lights was the best attended game of the season, drawing crowds above 15,000.
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The West Nile derby between Onduparaka and Arua Hill followed, drawing a capacity crowd of 7000 spectators.
The October meeting between KCCA and Vipers drew a crowd of 4000 fans, with SC Villa’s heart-breaking final day defeat to URA FC at Wankulukuku topping 3500 fans.
Vipers topped the attendance revenue collection, earning UGX 210 million from its home games, an average of 14 million.
Overall, the league amassed UGX 636 million from spectator attendance revenue which was collected by the 12 clubs who provided information about their matchday revenue, which was an average of UGX 53 million the entire the season.
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