In case you hadn’t heard or if you missed out on the noise in the streets on Sunday, Dynamos Football Club won another league title thanks to a victory over How Mine and ZPC’s fall to Caps United at Gwanzura Stadium.
On one side of the street you had Caps United fans celebrating, somewhat reluctantly, their victory over ZPC which had resulted in the league landing into their rivals hands. On the other side you had countless Dynamos fans celebrating a fourth consecutive title.
With all the noise generated in the real world and online, it’s safe to assume that Dynamos is the most visible sports brand in Zimbabwean football and sports. There’s a lot of brand capital here that extends to the digital world so why isn’t Dynamos exploiting it?
As a lifelong Dynamos fan I’m saddened by the fact that all the glory that our team has reveled in isn’t documented anywhere. After 21 league titles and the bragging rights for being the local club that has gone the furthest on the continental stage, we still don’t have a Dynamos website.
There is no place online where all these victories or the people behind them are celebrated. We still have to look at a profile on soccerway.com to get a sense of what Dynamos is all about. The other alternative would be a Wikipedia article which is hardly the most reliable source as it could have been penned by an Al Ahli fan out rewrite Dembare history.
Before we wait for a local tech entrepreneur to figure out the opportunity that lies in harvesting facts and data on local football clubs (something that would kill a tonne of sports bar arguments) can’t Dynamos have at least some sort of landing page? The different possible domain names are still available after all.
Looking beyond the sentimental notion of the Dynamos website there is of course the revenue opportunity that comes from a well managed website and digital presence.
Yes, it’s easy to talk about pages like Dembare dotcoms (and now some fan driven sites like Dembare.net) and how they give Dynamos fans a meeting place and voice, but lone-standing fan pages have never been known to pay the bills.
For a club beleaguered in financial challenges, a well crafted digital campaign centred on a single property like a website could provide an added revenue stream that could help offset some of these challenges.
All this is possible through merchandising and advertising, something that feeds off the huge fan base and brand visibility that Dynamos has. This is assuming that revenue inflows are the challenge here.
All this is hardly rocket science or out of the box thinking. These are the same models that have been carried by other clubs with a more aggressive approach to branding and the financial implications around it.
I have to take my hat off to other local clubs like Highlanders that have sought to establish an online presence with their own site, and others like Caps United have now got an Android app. (I’m yet to use it myself though) There’s hope that other clubs will come around.
In the meantime we will wait for the very late adopters like Dynamos and other digitally anorexic top flight teams to work on some of these small things before next season. Who knows, maybe some fans might do something like that out of the love and passion they have for their clubs.
How do you think Dynamos and other local clubs should use tech to discover new revenue streams?
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14 comments
Shows that the leaders of our clubs are clueless…. No wonder they dont make money…In this day and age you cannot rely on handouts from BancAbc and well wishers. Its high time our local clubs embrace technology. NB: Highlanders website is never or rarely updated. its like looking at an old article.
Sounds more like a fan’s dispair than it is a technological issue. Because it doesnt translate to a tragedy to everyone.
I do agree that they are not clever in not having online visibility. Everyone knows that websites and social media interaction is no longer an after thought. Especially with income potential.
Still not a tragedy though.
“What is a website?” says Kenny Mubaiwa as he calculates how much he should pay his players. Watch the news when players strike over the league win bonuses
Dembare operates best in a chaotic environment
Can not even follow them on facebook or twitter!
Ummm, now that you mentioned it. How do l contact the team marketing manager., I am seeing business opportunity there.
They don’t have one.
how much can they really make from having a website, does manchester united make any money from a website. they make their money from people who come to marches and sposnorship which are not enhanced in anyway by having a website
Truly I dont see how Dynamos can generate money from a website. We shouldnt compare local teams with European clubs coz they operate in totally different environments.
I don’t think the main motivator would be to make money initially but to afford a communication platform with their fans. This is a lot better than us waiting to hear stories from the Herald which doesn’t do a great job anywhere.
Dembare contact me on 077868704 website tisote
So there was an fcdynamos.com website a few years ago and it was really well maintained,great UI and it even had a Dynamos juniors and a Dynamos legends page.
It may have been a good idea to do some research and maybe mentioned that in your article and maybe have tried to find out why it had to be turned off which is responsible journalism.
When the site was live I was on it several times a day and probably whoever sponsored it decided to pull out. Also our Wiki page, I say our as a consumate DeMbare fan is very info rich. The Highlanders site is awful by the way. That interface is really awry and the UX, none to speak of. That’s just me being an opposition fan.
I am shocked NO reserch was done before publishing this stupid article….the website has been there for ages. Ask US true dembare fans. Pathetic
http://www.dynamosfc.co.zw
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