Zambian champions Power Dynamos FC’s Arthur Davies Stadium is now too small for the club and will require upgrading, the club has told Bolanews.
Gibson Chaloba, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the club, said in an exclusive interview that “we have made a request to our sponsors” for the approximately 15,500-seat capacity stadium to be upgraded.
“The stadium itself belongs to CEC (Copperbelt Energy Corporation). Yes, we’ve seen over time that the stadium has actually become too small for the number of people who come to our games,” Chaloba said. “So we’ve done a needs assessment, of course, for a new stadium, and we’ve made those submissions to the sponsor; we leave it at that level.”
Chaloba disclosed that the club’s executive is waiting for feedback from the ownership regarding their submission.
“I’m sure the management or the sponsor will take it up, and then we shall be informed in due course. Of course, we’ve all seen the need for expansion, or maybe for us to build a new stadium,” he said. “But I cannot answer on behalf of the sponsor at the moment.”
Arthur Davies Stadium in Kitwe was built and officially opened in 1977 and is named after Arthur Walter Davies, a former FIFA-accredited referee and the first chairman of Power Dynamos FC, which uses the stadium as its home ground.
The stadium is currently not CAF-certified, forcing Power Dynamos to play their CAF Champions League games away from home in Ndola at Levy Mwanawansa Stadium.
It has also been unable to host the country’s biggest derby, the Kitwe derby between Dynamos and their neighbouring rivals, Nkana, because of its limited seat capacity.
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