Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates took the field in front of just over 47 000 in Mmabatho this past Saturday and even though the media had not hyped up the game as much as the first round between clash between the teams back in November, a larger number of spectators turned out in Mmabatho.

The feel good factor that existed at the derby further strengthened South Africa’s position as a football friendly nation, as supporters from both teams waved flags and created a truly family and carnival atmosphere inside and outside the stadium.

Financial football was also at play in the North West Province with not just Mmabatho and its twin city Mafikeng benefiting from an influx of fans to the region, surrounding towns up to 60km away were beneficiaries of the derby being played in Mmabatho. With an estimated 1700 hotel and guest house beds occupied in Mmabatho towns such as Zeerust, Lichtenburg and Mariko saw hotels and bed and breakfast accommodation in these towns pulling up the house full signs.

North West Chiefs

Charles Ndabeni of North West Tourism and Parks Board was delighted with the effect the derby had on not just Mafikeng and Mmabatho but on the province as a whole and is looking forward to in the future welcoming Chiefs for more matches in the North West Province. As he said “having the Soweto derby in our province helped us to show case the beauty and tourism delights that we have on offer, a game of this magnitude helped us bring in much revenue to the province. We will in the future be looking towards hosting Chiefs on a regular basis in the province and in Mmabatho; the weekend was not just about football as we were delighted to have Chiefs cleaning our streets as well”.

Fan support

While many played down the derby the fans turned out in large numbers at the Mmabatho Stadium which is the second largest soccer stadium in the country and Chiefs Chairman Kaizer Motaung paid homage to this as he added. “A derby is always a special occasion and it was a wonderful sight to see so many fans turning up in large number, many travelled from outside of the province and things generally ran smoothly. For this the North West Provincial government must take credit as a number of their departments, from traffic control through to general policing and safety worked well together”.

Sound strategy

Amakhosi Director of Marketing Jessica Motaung believes that the club together with the North West Province made effective use of various mediums to market the derby, as well as the fact the host city would be pulling out all the stops to ensure that all visitors had an enjoyable time in Mmabatho.

Jessica explained “being able to pull off an incident free derby in the city is a real achievement with the various sides pulling together to ensure that the event was a success. Our marketing team at Chiefs as well as the supporters club were out from early in the week mobilizing fans to attend the match and in the end it turned out to be one of those unforgettable derbies”.