Young Africans launch plans to build 35,000-seater Stadium

Tanzania Mainland Premier League champions Young Africans Sports Club (Yanga SC) want to extend their domestic league dominance into infrastructure development as well.

The Dar-es-Salaam-based giants have announced ambitious plans to construct a state-of-the art 25,000 to 35,000-seater stadium in the next few years.

In a statement, the CAF Champions League regular participants invited interested strategic partners to come on board and invest in the facility.

“Yanga SC hereby invites expressions of interest from reputable and financially capable strategic partners/investors/consortia to develop at Jangwani/Twiga Street (formerly Kaunda Stadium) to be conducted at Yanga bare land plot and deliver a stadium project under a long-term partnership,” the statement reads.

“In line with the club’s infrastructure development strategy, Yanga SC intends to establish a strategic partnership for the construction of a modern Yanga stadium and allied facilities.

The proposed model is a funded partner, whereby the selected partner shall mobilise and cover costs of the construction and related development costs.”

Who will fund Yanga Stadium?

Realising the enormous sums of money such a project would require, the Tanzanian champions have outlined financing models. One of the models includes Public-Private Partnership (PPP).

“The club is open to evaluating various partnership structures proposed by interested parties, including but not limited to: naming-rights model, sponsorship-led funding, concession/PPP arrangement, design-build-finance-operate (DBFO) framework, or any other commercially viable structure to be reviewed and approved by the club’s internal governance and decision-making organs,” the statement adds.

Currently, Yanga SC use the Benjamin Mkapa National Stadium as their home base, but share the same venue with rivals Simba SC.

In Africa, most clubs lack financial capacity to construct stadiums. For example, reports in South Africa indicate that no club owns a stadium. Giants such as Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns use city-owned facilities.

Amakhosi and the Buccaneers call FNB Stadium home while the Betway Premiership defending champions use Loftus Versfeld Stadium. In most African countries the challenge is not just about lacking financial capacity to construct a stadium, but also inability to maintain such facilities once built. This is attributed to a lack of sound stadium business management strategy.