SPORTING LAGOS: THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK SETTING THE PACE
By Quadri Labaika
Photo credit 📸: Pooja Media and Communications
Geographically based in the commercial nerve center of the most populous African nation, Lagos; the beautiful city that never stops. Sporting Lagos established in February 2022 by tech Guru Shola Akinlade is redefining football club management and marketing in Nigeria.
Barely two years after bursting into the scene, the burgeoning club have secured promotion to the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) the country’s elite league from the second-tier league; a feat rarely seen in the firmament.
Aside from the beautiful football on the field of play, the club is ditto breaking ground in the business angle of the game with well layout business model that’s novel to the football fraternity of the country.
After failing to secure promotion to the elite league on its first attempt, Sporting Lagos underwent a rebranding that ushered in a brand new crest, establishment of the youth academy for the development of young Stars, the first-ever headline sponsor with Klasha a cross-border payment solution company and Umbro as the new kit manufacturer of the club.
Sporting Lagos in just one and half years of existence has brought a whole new match-day experience for their teeming energetic fans who are mostly of Youth demography, a rare scene in the local league. The club home game is now the weekend destination for the young entrepreneurs and other populace of the yellow bus city.
The incorporation of football with entertainment has seen celebrity performances alongside halftime shows that present the fans with opportunities of winning prizes at their home matches.
More so, the initiative that has caught the Eyes of many and got their tongue-wagging is the fans club ‘happy corner’, named after the vivacious, passionate group of Sporting Lagos fans in the VIP/premium section. The experience here is different from the usually quiet environment that is often associated with the VIP section; the fans here make deafening, ear-piercing noise. They have established themselves as the engine room of the matchday experience and coordinate the chanting and blasting of the Vuvuzelas. Indeed a shift in the culture of VIPs in Nigeria.
Unlike the maladministration, unprofessionalism and lackluster ambiance of most of the clubs in the country, Sporting Lagos is setting the pace by building an unprecedented torchpoint fan-based culture. The Club fan’s engagement goes beyond the match-day experience alone, the various Social media handles also provide after-match engagement with the fans through fascinating content and up-to-date information about the club. The club website is another thing to behold, the interface provides the visitor with a captivating experience and houses news, comprehensive information about the club history, match detail, players profile and a shop to purchase the club merchandise.
Sporting Lagos is no doubt turning the local league football into a consumer product that once nonchalant youths are all-embracing and not even the frustrating System of the league or the excruciating Lagos traffic is able to stunt the growth. This underlined that if the local league is well packaged, it will definitely be embraced by all.
The club will on Sunday slug it out against another new generational club redefining Football Club management in the country, Remo stars and stands a chance of winning its first-ever laurel in the history of the club.
Indeed, the coming of sporting Lagos has opened a new vista in Nigeria’s football ecosystem and If the momentum is Sustained the club will etch its name as the reference point of redefining Club football in the country. As the fans will always chant “Let’s go Sporting, let’s go”!!!