Butcheries are hectic businesses, because of the perishable nature of meat products; Mutaawe is kept quite busy throughout the day, to make sure that he sells out every bit of his daily stock. It is the kind of work that leaves Mutaawe, like many of his ilk, exhausted at the end of the day, as they prepare for the following day, to do it all over again.
However, Mutaawe has found a way of overcoming all the daily stress. Right opposite Petromax fuel station in Matugga, an astro-turf playground was opened a few years ago. Bright and well-lit after sunset, this popular play area in Matugga, has become a major attraction for many.
“While in school, I used to play football a lot. But now, when you look around my home area, most fields have been turned into building space. The few remaining pitches in school premises are not accessible to the general public. Yet, we also need to exercise. But I just love
football. So, this astro-turf has given me an opportunity to enjoy my passion more than just watching it on TV,” Mutaawe said.
Mutaawe visits this play centre almost every night between 7pm and 9pm. And by the time he gets home, he has burnt a sizeable amount of calories and stress from his system. He believes that the experience at his favourite play centre, has enabled him stay healthy, even though he is not the smallest guy on the turf.
Mutaawe believes he is now more of muscle than just fat, which would have led to high cholesterol levels. This normally results in hypertension. And for Mutaawe, he has been able to keep these at bay by filling his evenings with an exercise he loves.
Like Mutaawe, many Ugandans have replaced time previously spent in bars and gyms with playing football late into the night; it helps that some astro-turf playing areas are part of bigger establishments with bars and restaurants, sauna and spas, gyms and swimming pools, among other facilities.
Yuda Mugalu, is a former Uganda Cranes international. Once Mugalu retired from being an active footballer eight years ago, having played for Vipers SC and Victors FC, he concentrated on the business side of football. Mugalu manages Henry’s Sports Centre in Kabalagala, which is off Ggaba road.
Although Henry’s Sports Centre was established back in 2020 to develop young football talent, it is a place frequented by more adults with less chance of cutting it as professional footballers. Encompassing four football fields, all made of artificial grass, the sports centre is a beehive of activity especially in the evening.
“We get so many customers playing football daily. It is at its busiest starting from 4pm. Different groups play up to 1am during weekdays. On the other hand, over the weekend, football activities run from 8am until the wee hours of the following day,” Mugalu said.
Because of the free-time people have on their hands over the weekend, many choose to exercise early in the morning. Normally, a team of six players, is charged Shs 75,000 while that of nine, will pay Shs 150,000. Although Mugalu is not at liberty to reveal how much money they make, these grounds are proving to be a very lucrative business investment.
There is quite a huge number of this kind of facilities in Kampala, its suburbs, as well as in neighbouring Wakiso district and nearby municipalities. The MTN Omondi stadium, home of KCCA FC, was probably the maiden astro-turf stadium that started extending its services well after sunset, when they installed their first floodlights in 2018.
A number of people started making it their one-stop place after work. These were mainly the corporate class, who felt that their only way to escape the heavy traffic jam, was to make sure that their sportswear, sneakers or football boots were a mainstay in their car boots. So, they play and only leave the KCCA stadium in Lugogo, after the traffic in town has cleared.
Right nearby, is Panamera off Lugogo bypass, opposite Kampala Parents School. It is another heavily visited place by football-crazy individuals because of its night facility that is well lit and proximity to topnotch restaurants and bars.
Now places including Kamwokya, Munyonyo, Mutundwe, Lubaga, Kalerwe, Kitebi, Entebbe, Kabuusu, Najjeera and Gayaza have these wire mesh-fenced fields with hundreds of Ugandans keeping fit by playing football.
Agatha Namutosi manages a facility of this kind in Kamwokya along Mawanda road known as the Kinetic Sports Arena. Since it is situated in a residential area, the idea at inception last year was not for the business bit, but sheer passion Yet, things have changed since with the numbers of patrons that use the facility growing by the day.
Namutosi has observed that their facility has proved to be a pulling force to many companies that use it for team-building, mind refreshing and bonding; it has become more important than they had earlier envisaged would be the case.
“It was started merely for our own sports passion. But the demand to access it changed our thinking. While we open early at 7am, we close as late as midnight. Sometimes, we have clients that have played football until 5am! We have also realized a growth in numbers of those that do aerobics as individuals and as groups. We are truly growing,” Namutosi said.
In one way or the other, these facilities are proving to be growth poles for many people. Such, include the restaurants, but also informal investments like kiosks, where items like tea, coffee, chapati, pancakes and cow hooves (emolokony) are sold to their loyal customers.
David Kiyemba manages the Youth Encounter the Saviour ministries, commonly known by its acronym, the YES centre sports arena in Nsambya. It is an initiative of the late Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga.
The centre has a stadium building project that started by laying the astro-turf covering the sizes that are internationally certified: 108 metres by 79 metres. The ground is such a busy location that attracts all and sundry of the Nsambya and Makindye suburbs.
Kiyemba said: “Our huge numbers have led to so many businesses springing up, feeding off our premises. For example, a boda-boda stage was established, in order to transport our clients in the wee hours, say, 1am or even 2am, after they have played. But also, two new restaurants were started just a couple of months ago to feed our customers.”
And that is not all; there is a huge South Sudanese community in Nsambya that visits the YES centre to play football from 10am to 11pm. Because of them, a restaurant by a Ugandan, preparing their local dishes, has been started and is making a kill. Hajati Salama knows so well how the YES centre has boosted her life.
She used to prepare tea and sell snacks at the Bayern sports centre (another popular astro-turf ground) near the Speke Commonwealth Resort, Munyonyo. But Salama has since moved to Nsambya, where she was given space at the YES centre to cook cow hooves, tea and porridge.
This has enabled her educate her children and buy land because of how productive the YES centre has proved to be. In addition, rolex (chapati rolls, not the watch) sellers have also joined her in numbers to great effect. Kiyemba noted that the YES centre has proved to be a business networking place.
A number of his customers have brokered deals from supplying food, home utilities, construction and even excavators and land transactions, all by meeting on the turf to play ball. Astro-turf fields are doing for Uganda’s middle and low class what golf courses have done for the rich and wealthy for decades; being deal brokering sites while doing what one loves.
There are individuals who come to the field with football boots, jerseys, bibs, and stockings for rent. To rent a pair of football boots for an hour costs between Shs 5,000 and Shs 10,000 depending on its quality. Some of these businesspeople carry like 20 pairs. To rent a full jersey for your team, will cost a team Shs 30,000, while a pair of stockings will be charged Shs 3,000.
There are countless opportunities at these fields for whoever is ready to grab them; one just has to smell the coffee. The multiplier effect of these astro-turf facilities is proving to be widespread, even though when people were investing in them, many felt that they were just providing a sports facility, where people could learn football, or sweat themselves into the ground to stay fit.
Even in many upcountry districts like Masaka, one can still play way past the godly hours under floodlights. But like Shamim Nantongo, who works at one of these facilities in Mutundwe, noted, having people come to the ground to play until late in the night has changed so many lives – the fitness of the players being just a small part of the equation.
At some bigger facilities, married couples go with their children and as some play, there are countless activities on the sidelines for their spouses and children.
And it is not just football anymore; other floodlight-lit sports spaces in suburbs like Kira have tennis courts a stone’s throw away from one’s home. Others go to play volleyball, basketball and more, all after dark. And that is how Ugandans are becoming quite the sporty bunch, one neighbourhood at a time.
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