Worries expressed by Nigerians over the recent initiative by the local organizing committee to ensure people pay to watch the Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis Championship, have been quashed.
According to Prince Wale Oladunjoye, the Tournament Director of the pro-circuit which is hosted by the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan, the championship is being played by many top world players and it is only fair enough to have people pay to watch them play.
Mr. Oladunjoye, who made the clarification about the payment and the need to have people buy tickets for a minimum of N1,500, noted that even though the payment format is not on a full scale, there has to be a beginning to it.
 |
| Prince Wale Oladunjoye addressing journalists in Lagos ahead of the 17th edition of the Governor’s Cup Lagos Tennis Championship. |
“We can’t be watching the best players play without paying to watch them. We had to start the option of making people pay before watching. We must have some level of payment for entertainment.
“We must pay for the talents that we want to watch. What we are starting now is not a full tickets fee, we want to start with a segment. We will still invite people and give them tickets, but we have to start somehow.
“Some people want to pay but they don’t know how to pay,” Prince Oladunjoye, a foremost grassroots sports administrator told the journalists during the briefing in Lagos.
Players are expected to arrive the country on Friday, 6 October and prepare for the preliminary stage of the competition which serves off on Monday, 9 October.
Tickets for the $100,000 prize money tournament are sold at the rates of N1,500 for regulars and N5,000 for VIPs on the platforms of Ariya Tickets and Naija Tickets Shop.