A lot has been said about how Kenyan basketball and motivation need to go hand In hand. Most people ask what kind of motivation it is they are talking about. Is it in terms of assets, trophies and the ratio of liability to accomplishments in a basketball season?
Shouldn’t our basketball be like the most watched NBA? Or local football where money, wealth and club richness is a thing to boast about? Well fact is, we are not there yet, but regardless we still have teams that can definitely stand out as the more financially stabled, in terms of how much they spend on players, and logistics to run the team. Surprisingly some teams spend to the tunes of millions in a single season and their basketball prowess is something to brag on in the local basketball scene.
Lets be realistic the club in Kenya that splashes the most amount of money on players and coaching stuff and equipment will be the richest.
Here is the list of 5 richest basketball clubs in Kenya.
*figures are estimates but close to the real numbers
1.STRATHMORE UNIVERSITY
All of you might disagree with me on this but I will insist Blades & Swords are the richest basketball clubs in the country. Reasons are:-
·Scholarships: Strathmore is the 5
th most expensive university in Kenya and for the institution to have 4 basketball teams (2 ladies & 2 men) and offer them scholarships is something simply amazing! Boils down to actual taking care of your assets (players) who in turn deliver. We cannot merely equate this in exact monetary figures, but from a lay mans point of view, cost of educating the kids for a single year clocks to about 36million for Basketballers alone.
·The coaching staff for Strathmore basketball teams need not be talked a lot about, all I can say is they earn a 5 figure salary, and trust me, its more than 49,000kshs.
·Strathmore OWNS their own basketball training facilities and that’s hard to come by because in Kenya, Nairobi especially it is so expensive to own land.
So with this few facts, Strathmore owns the top spot in the richest clubs In Kenya.
2.KPA
Have you heard of a team that ferries players to and from another county so that they attend a league game? Well KPA does that. This is expensive and for the financial manager of a basketball team to do that, it probably has to have deeper than most pockets.
The coast based team has its own gym, hence in terms of assets, they are well equipped, and their fan base is the most vocal currently in the premier league.
Their staff are moderately taken care of and the players get to pocket a cool 5000kshs and above on away matches, not forgetting that the sleep in a 3 star hotel in the CBD
2.COOPERATIVE BANK SPARTANS
Talk about hard cash, the tangible thousands paid for your skill then coop should be the richest in Kenya. The only reason Strathmore is #1 is because I will not equate education to money and the fact that the 36+ million is not hard cash given to the basketballers.
Regardless the Spartans take second spot for various reasons
· Coach wages: the coach is well paid for his services and its money we can call a salary tax free.
· Player allowances: Spartans are the highest paid players in Kenyan basketball. Money that goes to their account (oh yeah, once you get drafted to Coop, you are opened for an account). The bank spends roughly 50,000kshs a week on player allowances, given that a month has four weeks, you do the math. Its safe to say these Men are well taken care of, as the bank boasts of its financial prowess on the streets.
· Travelling expenses: people love to travel, and go on basketball trips and tournaments. Who wouldn’t wanna travel in comfort and reach my destination and sleep in 4 star hotels. The best part would be if I do all this while doing what I love. Coop does that. Reliable sources informs us that traveling locally say to Mombasa, coop splashes a minimum of 254,000kshs in player accommodation and dinner for two days. Again you be the judge of the Spartan lifestyle.
· Training venue: all if not most of you have been to nyayo. That’s where cooperative bank trains. And payment is done to sport stadium management. According to their books, coop pays the gym from February to December. Four days a week… totals up to 156,000kshs.
Now with the few listed facts, its clear that the bank stands out as a financial powerhouse in basketball, because the players and coaching staff are more than well taken care of, thus handing the SPARTANS position 2 in the richest clubs in Kenya.
4.EQUITY BANK
Well the addition of this team on this list will for sure have tongues wagging since nobody knows what it is made up of.
The reason I have them here is not because they are banks, no way! That would just be bad journalism. But mainly due to the fact that the management has gone out of their way to offer some players employment. At the end of the day this translates to player growth so unlike the #1 and #2 slots, this team focuses on the player future. Gun to my head id say this holds a lot of value.
So I wont audit their books, maybe because I don’t have an inside man there, but all I know is there are jobs offered to players, and the coaching staff is well compensated for his hard work training the men at Railway club ( which is paid at a rate of 3000ksh a week.
5.ULINZI
Its not rocket science to know that this is technically a government owned team.
It is very safe to assume that the GoK provides for our army buddies. The government of course has money so Ulinzi makes a technical appearance on this list. I mean, if we don’t include our government team, then we are doomed!
