Orlando Pirates Reopens Soweto Store, Splitting Retail Between Mall and Matchday
Orlando Pirates will reopen its official club store at the Orlando Amstel Arena on Saturday, restoring a permanent retail site in Soweto barely a fortnight after the Betway Premiership champions opened a flagship outlet at Mall of Africa in Midrand. The two openings together give the club something almost no other side in South African football has: direct control of its own merchandise counter in two very different markets.
Gates open at 10:00 on 15 August. Entry is free but ticketed, with supporters required to register in advance through OpenTickets.co.za and the club also planning activations for the day.
Marketing Manager Sindisiwe Khumalo-Sibisi mentioned the reopening as a statement for the township rather than a retail launch, saying it showed that "the Soweto township is still thriving and continues to hold a special place in the club" according to Orlando Pirates Football Club.
Earlier in this year, Orlando Pirates renamed its stadium to Orlando Amstel Arena - under a five-year naming rights agreement with Amstel, as part of Heineken South Africa, in a deal structured between the club and the brewer rather than through Stadium Management South Africa, which operates the City of Johannesburg-owned ground. The 37,313-seat stadium, open since 1959, is referred to by supporters as eS'Godini.
Retail Operations Manager Hunadi Sefoka set the two sites against each other. Mall of Africa took the Buccaneer lifestyle into a commercial centre, she said, while "Orlando Amstel Arena brings it back to where the story lives". The aim, she added, is destinations that feel "unmistakably Orlando Pirates".
The purchasing strategy is geared towards a shopper with disposable income who may not set foot in Soweto or attend a match. It puts an authorised counter in the one place where counterfeit Pirates kit has always moved most freely, on a matchday street where the club previously captured almost none of that spend.
South African clubs have historically outsourced both retail and fan data to third parties and kept very little of either. Pirates are now in the unusual position of owning the shelf, the shopper record and, through Amstel, the building's name. If the Soweto site trades well, the case for a club-operated retail estate stops being a branding argument and starts being a revenue line other Premiership sides will have to answer.
Source: Orlando Pirates
