By Charles Mutebi
THE local basketball governing body FUBA deserve a lot of credit for winning the rights to host this year’s Zone Five Club Championship.
The tournament starts July 27 and, for the subsequent week, the local basketball fraternity will be treated to some of the spiciest action they have seen in a long time.
But for FUBA, winning the rights is the easy part. Making sure the event becomes memorable is another thing, and as things currently stand, FUBA will have to do so much to make the Championship stand out.
Among other challenges, what would have been the main venue for the regional tournament, Lugogo Indoor Stadium, is overdue on renovations which have been in the fray for a year now.
Federation president Ambrose Tashobya is trying to convince the concerned authorities to delay work until the end of the event and as the face-lift has been put off countless times already, he might be successful.
Having the indoor stadium could basically be the difference between an average championship and an excellent one. It is very convenient for fans and many a league games played there this season have packed a capacity crowd.
That will be hard to get at YMCA and Makerere, the open-air venues which would take over the task in Lugogo's absence.
The YMCA surface has just been rebuilt but there is still impending work on the seats and a certain wall that is to close behind one side of the hoops. YMCA can bring in some fans but Makerere wouldn't and that would be a huge problem for the championship.