Category Archives: Sports business

Redemption?

Eliud Kipchoge (centre) beats Kenenisa Bekele (left) and Hicham El Guerrouj (left)in Paris in 2003

Now that Kenyans are no longer the favourites, can they Kenya pull out more suprises and regain some track and field glory? Find out at the following upcoming events on Super Sport this month:

Friday 19 August: 20:45 – 21:30 SS6 IAAF Golden League: Weltklasse, LIVE
Sunday 21 August: 18:00 – 21:00 SS1 IAAF GP: GP – Sheffield, LIVE
Tuesday 23 August: 20:30 – 23:00 SS1 IAAF GP: Super GP – Linz, LIVE
Friday 26 August: 21:00 – 23:30 SS2 IAAF Golden League: Memorial Van Damme, LIVE
Sunday 28 August: 18:00 – 21:00 SS1 IAAF GP: GP – Rieti, LIVE

My Week

15th June
Panari Centre opens
Panari Center, a $16 Million (1.3 billion shilling) ultra-modern airport hotel complex complete with ice-skating facilities which was originally set to open in August 2004. This project is a joint venture between a Kenyan construction company and foreigner investors and is located on Mombasa Road.

16 – 18th June
E-World Expo at the Sarit Center

17th June
KCB AGM
Following an out of court settlement, Shareholders will be asked to reverse the sale of Kencom House, which was sold in 2000 to the staff pension fund.

17-19th June
10th Safari Sevens Rugby tournament

18th June
Kenya vs Morocco (World Cup qualifier)

30th June
Income Tax Deadline
Must get forms from the Kenya Revenue Authority and avoid the last minute lines.

Football Accounting 101: 1 + 1 + 1 – (20%) = 1

Even as Kenya defeated Botswana in a World Cup soccer qualifier on Saturday, a war was being waged by three organizations over who would count and take charge of cash raised from tickets sold at the game.

Unbelievable Greed

ESPN’s (The) Sports Guy: Would you believe me if I told you that the city of Jacksonville (Florida, US, site of the 2005 super bowl) changed all the ATMs (excluding the ones in actual banks) so that A) it costs $5.00 for every ATM transaction, and B) you can only take out $100 at a time, and nothing more than that?

Well, it’s true. In other words, if you want to take out $300, it costs you an extra $15. Great city. Don’t give Nairobi Mayor Waithika any more bad ideas

Olympic Colours

This somewhat racist article, in Salon magazine, points out that Kenya throws millions of shillings at a sport we are ‘terrible at’[soccer]and that we should instead concentrate on sports where we clearly excel [athletics] – We’re so good at athletics, that we are even exporting athletes for dollars

No amount of political correctness can obscure the reality that a large part of Kenyans’ mediocre record in soccer and sprinting comes down to genetics: They just don’t have the body or physiology for those sports. They are ectomorphs, short and slender, with huge natural lung capacity and a preponderance of slow twitch muscles, the energy system for endurance sports. It’s a perfect biomechanical package for distance running, but a disaster for sports that require anaerobic bursts of speed — like sprinting and soccer.

Also, despite the relative success of the Harambee Stars, Kenya has effectively outsourced its soccer craze to the Premiership and other European leagues since satellite TV was established in Kenya. If Harambee Stars are playing the Africa Cup final against Tunisia, simultaneously with an Arsenal-Chelsea game, TV’s will be equally split between both games. Meanwhile, Dennis Oliech plays his professional soccer in Doha, Qatar earning 640,000 shillings a month (and 60,000 of allowances per week)