Ugandan clubs in Dar es Salaam for FIBA Africa Zone V

Sep 30, 2016

The Oilers have gone to Tanzania with no other aim than winning the tournament

FIBA Africa Zone V Club Championships

Venue: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Dates: Oct 1-7

Teams

Women: KCCA Leopards, UCU Lady Canons, Ubumwe, USIU, KPA, JKT & Don Bosco

Men: City Oilers, UCU Canons, Espoir, Patriots, Ulinzi, USIU, National Engineering, Citizen, ABC & Savio

It says a lot about the capacity and ambition of Ugandan basketball clubs at the moment that four have travelled all the way to Dar es Salaam for the 2016 FIBA Africa Zone V Club Championship, tipping off Saturday.

The cost of the journey - whether it's the millions of shillings spent by the City Oilers and KCCA Leopards on their flights or the physical toll on the UCU players who travelled by road - is steep.

Add the upkeep over next seven days and the bill shoots well into the sh100m region, a bill that is not justifiable going by the traditional return on investments principle.

National Basketball League (NBL) clubs currently generate no finances from the local game, with the NBL devoid of a sponsor, gate collections or merchandise sales for clubs. And the less said about the prize money for NBL champions the better.

But despite all this, the Oilers and KCCA Leopards are investing hundreds of millions annually to build regional basketball powerhouses while Uganda Christian University equally dispatches astronomical sums into its basketball programme, dishing out countless scholarships over the years.

The Oilers have gone to Tanzania with no other aim than winning the tournament where they have been first runners up and runners up in the last two years. The Leopards are equally looking to better last year's runners up finish but the absence of bruising centre Martha Soigi will dent their chances.

Regardless of the final outcomes, however, Uganda's four-pronged appearance is a major statement on how far the local game has come. And perhaps, an advertisement on the hope for a bright future.

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