Grassroot sports development has always been seen as the base for sports progress and success for Nigeria on a larger scale and the Da Roma concept has brought up KCBT- Kings of the court Basketball tournament to help in the promotion and discovery of young talent.
“What we’re trying to do is promote sports generally in Nigeria, starting from basketball then we move ahead to other sports because our focus is sports generally in Nigeria and this is just this first sport to propel into other sports,” CEO of Da Roma concepts Mr. Teniola Oluwadamilare told Sports247.
The competition which is already in its third edition though should have been held last year but due to the pandemic it was moved forward to 2021 and it’s slated to be a yearly event.
Speaking on sponsorship and its challenges, the CEO said “Organizing events in Nigeria is obviously not easy due to lack of individual and corporate sponsorships. We promote this event ourselves even as we’ve tried to contact organizations we feel could support in our own way but it’s quite unfortunate that we don’t have a single sponsor as a company for now. Indomie noodles have been our only material sponsor and we appreciate them, while all financial services have come from Da Rome concepts. This has also affected our ability to get venues for the games as they are not free and require financial remunerations,” Mr. Damilare explained.
The boss also explained how lack of media publicity and support has been a challenge for the event as it all boils down to finances. Being able to stream the games, promote them on radio, TV, and social media as well to give the event more face and a larger reach.
“Our aim is to promote athletes here in Nigeria. We have lots of talented athletes here in Nigeria but are unable to express themselves and showcase it as there is no exposure and most times it dies in them. That’s why we organize these events, select talented ones, and try to promote these talents in and out of Nigeria. We can say we have assisted two basketball players out of Nigeria, a female who left to China and a male who traveled this year to the UK as we secured full sponsorships for them to be able to showcase themselves” Mr. Damilare added.
The competition has been to Akure, Abeokuta where 4 teams have been selected to participate in the final 8 showdowns at the indoor sports basketball hall of the National Stadium, Surulere Lagos between the 22nd and 24th of December 2021. The Lagos selection competition holds at the Oworo basketball court from 17th through 19th December 2021.
