The Minister of sports and recreation, Mr Fikile Mbalula wants to introduce a tax on sports tickets to fund school sports development. According to the minister’s proposal, first tabled in his budget vote speech approximately three weeks ago according to City Press, a tax levy will be placed on the tickets of every professional sports […]
The Minister of sports and recreation, Mr Fikile Mbalula wants to introduce a tax on sports tickets to fund school sports development.
According to the minister’s proposal, first tabled in his budget vote speech approximately three weeks ago according to City Press, a tax levy will be placed on the tickets of every professional sports match played. After City Press presented it as a #TalkingPoint on Twitter on Sunday, sports fans expressed some concerns about the proposal and asked him how will it affect their pockets, to which he replied: “[a]ticket levy does not mean increase in ticket pricing for the spectators,” suggesting that the ticket prices will remain the same, but the government will tax more from that amount.
It appears thus, that this will initially affect the stadium facilitators and sports federations most because this may dent their profit margins, thus ultimately influencing a ticket pricing increase for spectators too. In South Africa, stadium attendance has been low in recent years, especially in SA’s favourite sports such as soccer, cricket and rugby and there are concerns from a senior rugby official, according to the City Press, that people will be discouraged to go to the stadium to watch their favourite teams. Mbalula’s second tweet was directed at the spectators, saying: ” Our love for sports shouldn’t be just watching a game and leaving, but it should be also about development sport”. his message, essentially, is that spectators can contribute to the development of sport as a whole and not just to their teams and their favourite sports. This ticket levy will develop other sports that are not big in the country such as tennis, basketball, squash and volleyball, particularly in schools because then learners can get good qualified coaches, quality equipment and good training facilities.
We caught up with Mr Sadaam Maake, the popular supporter of Kaizer Chiefs, about the ticket levy and he said: “As a spectator who goes to the stadium every week, I want to see good football and this initiative will develop future stars.” The Transnet School of Excellence was a soccer school that develop players and gave them education on a daily basis and produced good quality players such as Steven Pienaar who’s is playing in the English Premier League today. With better ports development in schools, there will more stars in every sport. by scouting talent at an early age and develop their sports talent and giving them education.
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