On Tuesday, 18 July, the founder of the popular Philly’s Games, Philly Mathebula, revealed the success story of the tournament.
What started out as a tournament to facilitate peace between two rival factions of Tembisa 31 years ago, has now grown into a highly profitable business that includes television broadcast, a host of corporate sponsors, job creation within the community, and over 13 000 spectators per day across different venues in Tembisa. Mathebula attributes the success of the tournament to their strict ‘no favours’ policy in implementing their requirements and standards for the showcase.
“We don’t do any favours. We put structures and we follow them, and we expect people who work with us to follow the rules and we monitor that. And we make sure that there are no favours to individuals and friends, and we make sure that we are all the same size. What we promise – we deliver, that’s what makes these games a success,” he said.
The broadcast giant SuperSport coming on board to showcase the games live has not only enabled them to reach a wider audience, but it has also sparked thoughts of expansion into other provinces.
“Sponsorship. You lose revenue, but you will always get it with more sponsors that you bring on board because the viewers can watch it on TV, and it can reach more people. When we had no TV here, the 13 000 people would watch but not the whole country. Now I am getting calls from Maputo, Ghana, Nigeria, and I tell them that I am coming there,” he said.
The Philly’s Games are set to conclude on 2 January where the winners will pocket a R200 000, the runners-up receive R70 000, while the bronze medalists and fourth place finishers will get R20 000 and R10 000, respectively.
With the success of the tournament, Mathebula is confident that it will continue to grow and reach even greater heights.
Philly’s games are way much better https://t.co/f5cSJIOybX
— MW (@MWTlali) January 1, 2023
