SILALEI SHANI: I’m still shooting hoops, but in a different way

Silalei Shani is a former captain of the national women’s basketball team, and currently the sports and entertainment director of Alymali, a sports management company. She studied human resources for her undergraduate degree at Messiah College in the US, and has hosted and produced a number of basketball TV shows including Baqe. She  is also a live sports commentator and analyst.

Tell us about Alymali. How is it different from other sports marketing agencies? 
At Alymali, we are committed to commercialising sports in East Africa and beyond. We are coming in as middlemen. We plan to link athletes, leagues and teams with companies, ambassadors and brands that want to market their products through sports. I’ve done a lot of research and realised that there are not many sports management companies, not just in Kenya, but in the continent. Majority of them are in South Africa, and we see how South Africans take their sports seriously. The way they manage their football, rugby and other disciplines is very different from how the rest of the world does it. We want the same for Kenya. 

How exactly do you plan to do that?
Though three pillars: Athletes, events and media technology. We recognise that athletes can’t survive on their salaries alone. Even someone as big as US basketballer Lebron James who rakes in $44 million a year, is worth a $1 billion, and that difference comes from endorsements. That’s why he has a building at the Nike complex named after him. Same with Serena Williams. These are successful athletes, but the bulk of their money is from endorsements. We would like to set athletes up with endorsements to help them make money, and also to give them opportunities to do more than just playing the game.

We are offering various services in the form of financial consultation, legal support, and general management, including simple things like how to manage their social media accounts. The unique thing about sports fans is that they are engaged, very loyal, and are a captive audience. We want to grow our sport to the level where every company wants to market their products using an athlete or sports team.

Why do you think stadium attendance in Kenya remains poor even when popular teams are involved?
I think it is because the entertainment bit is missing from our sporting events, and that is another problem whose solution we have. We plan to start organising annual sports tournaments. And ours will not just be tournaments, they will be sports entertainment tourneys. I have observed that in Kenya, fans go to watch, say, a Gor Mahia match. They paint their faces, watch the game and go home. But there is such great opportunity for entertainment there.

The Superbowl halftime show, for instance, is bigger than the NFL game itself. Look at the NBA All Star weekend. That’s not even the main game of the league, but the fact that by attending it you might bump into former US president Barrack Obama or other celebrities, turns it into an entertainment event. It is all about packaging. 

You have been a sports presenter, producer, and also a writer. How important is the media in the development of local sports?
The media is extremely important. There are so many stories that remain untold, and others that haven’t been told fully. For instance, the story of former marathon legend Samuel Wanjiru. What really happened? What did we learn from that? I got into media production and broadcasting by accident but through that I have learnt a lot about how the media can impact sports. it is the reason I have created a sports podcast which will be going live this November. I will be the host, and we shall be discussing various sports topics with the help of key stakeholders such as sports celebrities influencers athletes, journalists, sponsors and sports administrators. 

Is Africa really fertile ground for the development of sports?
In Africa, we view sport as a tool for social engagement, yet it is a commercial venture. Right now we are seeing a huge investment in the field of sports. Go as far back as the 2010 Fifa World Cup that was held in South Africa, and more recently the Basketball Africa League – the National Basketball Association injects a whopping $186 million dollars into that. The youth Olympic games are coming up in Senegal in 2026. It shows you that investors are finally realising that sports can be commercialised, and that there is a lot of money in it.

How will you navigate the local sports field which is riddled with mismanagement and corruption?
We will treat each team, federation and athlete differently. We will have very customised strategies for each client. It will not be a one size fits all approach. 

What would you say is the greatest challenge in local sports?
Mismanagement of funds, opportunities, and even athletes. What we’ve done in Kenya is to make our politicians the celebrities. If Sonko or President William Ruto walk in town, they won’t be able to do move in peace. But a musician like Nyashinski will. Yet if Eliud Kipchoge walks on the streets of Vienna, Austria, he will be mobbed. It is because some communities have come to understand the value of a sports and athletes. They know how to celebrate achievement, so we want to elevate our teams and athletes to that superstar status. Once we get them exposed to the right attention and right funding, we can advise them on how to use that funding properly.

What big thing should we look out for from you?
Apart from the podcast I talked about earlier, there is also an app which we plan to release next year, which will provide the solution to a really big sporting problem – scouting for sports talent in Africa. I don’t want to share much about it, but it will be great.