Vihiga county is planning to cut down on the sports budget in a bid to invest in sports infrastructure at the grassroots level.
Vihiga County Executive Committee member in charge of sports, Mulongo Onzere, said it will be better to focus on sports infrastructure to cut down costs implications that most teams incur while playing home matches away.
He said improving the sports centres/stadia will help the County at large to nature more talent across the board.
Mulongo was addressing the press in his office at the county headquarters on Thursday morning.
"Our teams incur huge costs for hiring the playground in the neighboring counties to host home matches yet we have the capacity to set up our own stadiums," he said.
The CEC said Vihiga Queens and Vihiga United are forced to hire Mumias Complex at Sh20,000 while Vihiga Bullets hire Bukhungu Stadium at the same cost.
"Once we have improved on our playgrounds, this will help teams to save the cash used to hire venues away," Onzere said.
He further said once the facilities are improved, it will help the teams to generate revenues during the match days just like their counterparts do during home matches.
Onzere said such revenues once generated will help teams to meet some obligations via internal cash raised.
The CEC said most teams in the county are facing financial crisis because the little resources they have aren't utilised properly as most teams struggle to hire the playground.
The county initially had plans to revive a number of stadiums in the county though corruption took centre stage leading to shoddy jobs across the county.
Among the venues targeted by the county for improvement are — Mumboha ground, Ebusakami School ground, Kidundu Stadium, and Hamisi Stadium.
The relocation of the people around Kidundu Stadium failed as there were no proper structures between the locals and the county government.
Kaimosi Stadium and Mumboha were also allocated funds but the minimal renovation was done.
Onzere said if the relocation of the people near the facilities fails again, they will resort to government land.
He urged teams to utilise properly the little resources they have as the county plans to scale down their support.
Further, the CEC urged the teams also to declare the kitties received from the national government and other financial supporters.