The City of Lusaka Football Club (F.C) have announced Vodafone Zambia as their official sponsor in an agreement that gives the next generation operator the sole naming rights of the team’s home stadium, Woodlands.
Additional terms of the agreement indicate that Vodafone Zambia will create a digital experience for fans of the Super Division side through the installation of the business’ next-generation Wi-Fi service within the stadium.
In light of this, the 4G operator will officially unveil the Vodafone Stadium, formerly Woodlands Stadium, on Sunday, August 27th, in a colourful event that is set to coincide with two critical matches. The double header is geared for ZESCO United versus Green Buffaloes; and City of Lusaka F.C versus Nkana F.C.
Vodafone Zambia CEO, Lars Stork said “We are proud to be partnering with City of Lusaka and Forli Limited in what we believe will be a beneficial relationship – more so for the fans. By branding the stadium, installing Wi-Fi and opening a Vodafone store, we are demonstrating two important things that are very important to Zambians: football and staying digitally connected. We believe that this agreement puts local football at the forefront of the integration of technology and sport in Zambia.”
And Diego Casill, CEO of Forli Zambia limited, the real estate firm contracted to refurbish and modernize the stadium noted that this was a great partnership for the local football league in terms of where fans and other key stakeholders want the game to be.
“This partnership marks an exciting phase in the club’s history. Working with a brand as iconic as Vodafone not only injects much needed revenue in the team’s growth prospects, but it cements our credibility and legitimizes our efforts toward giving our fans a modern football experience encompassing both infrastructure and technology. As such, we look forward to officially launching the Vodafone Stadium,” he said.
Mr Casill added: “It is important that we move with the times and offer a world leading fan experience, and in this day and age that means integrating modern infrastructure and innovative technology into our fan offering. Vodafone will be helping us to connect football fans with the game in new ways as well leveraging Vodafone’s experience in digital transformation to grow the City of Lusaka football team.”
This Sunday’s double header is anticipated to attract a capacity crowd of 14,000.
Good for sport
BAD for their core business! They should focus on providing coverage.
I have Vodafone that is completely useless as the have NO COVERAGE in the area where I operate.
WASTED PURCHASE! MY MONEY GONE! NO INTERNET!
MTN is still 1000% better than these people that don’t care about their customers.
Thats the kind of sponsosrship Zambian football needs. Mopani in Mufulira are you observing
I see that the seats are still made of concrete and are shielded from the playing filed by a wire fence. when are we moving away from this ansient tradition
The Fans in Germany are also barricaded, are they also ancient?
Last time i checked the ancient guys hosted a successful world cup in 2006 and have produced the best fan experience in Europe
Great initiative but let’s also invest in modern techniques of pitch maintenance. This is one area we have failed to find a working formula in this country.
How much has been invested. We want to know how much we are talking about. This is good news.
Mopani killed Nkana!!!
Why change the name from woodlands stadium!
They should build a new stadium and give whatever name of their choice they wish, not changing a name which has been known for decades.
Oh NOO!! Keep the name Woodlands stadium. It is synonmous with City yaMoto!!
Woodlands is the name and no one will erase it from history. Viva City Ya Moto.
In my area MTN services suck non existent. And besides the price comparisons between MTN and Voda MTN are way too high. Voda is by far cheaper. VODA Customer realations are by far very good.
Funny how people are complaining to why the name has changed. If you read the article very well it clearly says why the stadium name will change. Good examples are the Emirates and FNB stadiums. The Emirates stadium bares the name of the sponsor so does the FNB stadium.
Jonas, tell those empty tins on this site. They are changing because of advertisement purposes hence the name Vodafone.
We do appreciate the new coat of paint and color added to the Stadium , also the upgrading of the playing surface and dressing rooms . We would have appreciated more if the terraces were upgraded also , in terms of capacity – probably add a new deck of terraces above the current to match the barricade created for security above , and that’s what we shall call upgrading a stadium – not just a capacity of 14 000 , maybe take it to 25 000 so that many events like church groupings , musical festivals etc can hire the facility – make money.