KBF action moved to USIU as federation sights high cost of arena

Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) latest fixtures indicate that the league has moved from the Nyayo Indoor Arena to United States International University (USIU), a move the federation’s Secretary General (SG) Ambrose Kisoi claims has been necessitated by an increase in rates for the indoor arena.

The premier league was last played at the USIU grounds pre-Covid-19 era but the SG says Sports Stadia management have reviewed their charges, doubling the amount which has forced the federation to arrive at the decision.

“We have been paying Ksh 20,000 for using the facility each weekend but the amount has been revised to Ksh 23,000 per day which is too high for us.

We are yet to have a sit-down with stadium management to negotiate a more favourable deal. In the meantime, the matches will be held at USIU,” offered Kisoi.

His claims, however, have been contradicted by the Sports Kenya director Pius Meto whose office is in charge of the facility. “Plans are there to have the service charges revised but nothing has been agreed on and no information has been provided on the same,” Meto clarified.

The league entered its second leg two weekends ago with action held at the Strathmore Grounds due to the unavailability of the Indoor Arena that had been booked by a different group.

Last weekend’s matches were also canceled as the federation sought to hold a meeting with stakeholders.

“We had agreed that before the start of the second leg we would have a Team Managers’ meeting and a referee refresher course. We did not have a definitive mid-season so we chose this weekend to put our house in order as there were several issues that needed deliberating. The discussion of the venue for the matches was not held in that meeting,” Kisoi confirmed.

Ten matches in the top tier and lower leagues have been scheduled for each day on Saturday and Sunday as USIU have two courts.