WE 'LL TURN WOLVES INTO WORLD – CLASS CLUB
Amaju
The greatest albatross of most Nigerian clubs had always been the issue of inadequate funding by their owners, who are mostly state governments.
It has become a recurring decimal for players to complain about unpaid wages, even when the financiers of the club purportedly released money for that purpose.
To stem this tide, and on the long run, turn Warri Wolves into a club that would be the envy of others in the country, the Chairman of the Delta State Sports Commission, Pinnick Amaju, has mapped out strategies to transform the modest outfit into a world-class club.
Apart from winning the Champions League, Amaju, who also doubles as the Delta State FA boss, revealed that their ultimate plan is to privatise the club and get government to gradually withdraw from funding it within the next five years.
'We're trying to get Wolves fully privatised so that government can gradually hands off from funding the club within this period.
'We have a 25,000 capacity stadium. We are coming out with a plan whereby fans can have gold, silver, bronze, diamond and platinum membership cards.
'In the bronze category, if we have 10,000 members, with each contributing N10,000, that will give us N100million for a season and with that, we can brand our jerseys.
'The silver membership guarantees a home and away shirts to 10,000 fans, who will pay N25,000, and that attracts N250million to the club.
'The gold membership, with 4,000 members paying N50,000 each, will fetch us N250million.
'We took the capacity of the stadium into consideration before coming out with this plan.
'We also have diamond membership, which is meant for the VIP area, where members can park their cars and have limited assess to the VIP lounge. This category is only for 400 people, who will pay N500,000 each. That added together will give us N80million.
'The platinum membership is for the VIPs. It will have only 30 people, who will pay N2million each.
'In all, our target is to raise about N860million from this initiative and if we can achieve between 60 and 70 per cent of our target, we can run the club for a season without going to the government to ask for money.'
Although the outspoken sports administrator admitted that there would be some teething problems in kick-starting the initiative, nevertheless, he remained optimistic that as the club continues to do well, its fan base and interest in the initiative would also increase.
'Yes, it's a target we may not be able to achieve in three years, but of course, as interest in the club continues to grow and the club continues to do well, realising this objective will become very easy,' Amaju stated.