As a way of bringing in money into the club, Swallows FC are officially looking for venues outside the Gauteng province, with North West and Mangaung as options for the Soweto outfit.
The Dube Birds have played their home matches at Dobsonville Stadium, but now look set to follow in the footsteps of some PSL clubs who have used venues out of their provinces as alternative home grounds. Kaizer Chiefs had a deal with the Polokwane Municipality during the past season, using Peter Mokaba Stadium as an alternative home venue. In the agreement, the municipality pays Chiefs.
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Swallows chairman David Mogashoa confirmed to the Siya crew that they are in the process of looking for venues where they will be able to partner with one of the municipalities in North West or Mangaung.
"Look, we are looking for sponsors, but unfortunately these sponsors are not always readily available. We just have to keep looking and as we keep looking, you have to make sure you readjust your model, which is what we did this past season, hence we management to finish the season with not much problems. Even though there were small problems, we managed to finish the season with no major issues," Mogashoa said to the Siya crew.
"Another thing people are going to be seeing is that we are going to have to find another venue. If we can find a venue where we can be sponsored with the venue, we will go there. Currently we are paying for everything. If we can find some form of financial relief, we will be able to take the games to that area. It can either be Mangaung or North West, but we will be able to go somewhere. We are now starting to talk to people. We are going to talk to Mangaung and North West as well to see if there is anything available. We are not saying all the games, but some."
Mogashoa explained how difficult it has been to run the club financially after the PSL rejected their partnership with Telkom three campaigns ago, due to a conflict of interest with the league's sponsors.
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"People underestimate that Telkom thing. We had to run the club with a R50 million shortfall, because that was the value of that sponsorship. We signed contracts based on that sponsorship. That's why we had financial hiccups, but that's all over now because the deal was (meant to be) for three seasons. The third season is now gone and we are starting off on a clean slate next season."
"For us, this season, we just wanted to survive and guess what? We ended up in the top eight. We can actually say we are top six because we are equal on points (with Sekhukhune and Stellenbosch). If you look at Swallows' struggles, you will actually wonder how we did it. When you look at the top clubs, you've got clubs that are well resourced in terms of facilities and financials, clubs that are well sponsored. We are competing with them with nothing and for us to end in the top eight with no sponsor and hiccups here and there is commendable."
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