My first World Cup experience - France vs. Uruguay

Nom Chompsky

Nom Chompsky

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So I attended my first ever Soccer World Cup game yesterday and all I can say is "Wow" :). The entire experience was amazing.

The Good

  • I was dropped off at the Fan Park - it's a 2.4km walk to the Cape Town Stadium. This was quite impressive with many little stores selling food, drinks and merchandise. There were also many toilets along the way, which ensured there weren't many queues along the way. However, on the other side of the 'fence', some of the 'permanent' shops were closed at around 6PM - I thought that'd be a bit bizarre considering they're probably missing out on a bit of business.
  • The first queues we encountered were at the security check-in. However I was pleasantly surprised that it only took 15 minutes to get through it considering the amount of people there. They only metal detectors and do not check for ID etc.
  • After the security check-in, the flow of people was free again - there were stores from the official sponsors (Coke, Sony, VISA etc.) although I decided to avoid those.
  • I then went to the ticket-scanner where we were not asked for IDs and because we didn't know where we were at the stadium, we asked a helper who gave us directions to our seats.
  • There were many food and beverage vendors inside the stadium which really helped with queues - some guy who sat next to me went 5 minutes before half-time and he said there were no queues, which is quite amazing considering the 64000+ crowd attendance
  • The stadium is huge with much better people flow than Newlands. There's also clear signage and loos on every floor. The seats are modern and I really do not see why you'd ever play at Newlands again.
  • The transport back on buses was great - we were initially in a long queue to be on buses back to UCT but then 5 buses and we on a bus in 5 minutes. However I'm not sure if this was everybody's experience - it looked like we were the last bunch to get off at UCT as we had initially walked to the Waterfront instead of going back along the Fan Park :o (We had forgotten that we had walked around the stadium to get to our seat)

The Bad

  • The vuvuzelas - I think many people on this board will agree with me on this one. They were fine when only around 30% of the stadium were blowing it, but when the crowd got excited the noise was terrible.
  • Prices at the stadium - you're looking at R30 (or so I was told) for a Budweiser, R15 for a Coke and R20 for an ice-cream.
  • The pitch seemed to make many players slip on the grass - I really hope they fix that before the next game as it could become dangerous
  • The crowd attendance was 64100 which is nearly fully capacity, however I do think it was disingenuous by FIFA to say they had sold out this game when there were non-corporate seats
    available and whom I'm sure would be taken up by eager fans.

Conclusion: All-in-all, I have to give a BIG thumbs-up to the Cape Town stadium guys - 9/10... and this is from a World Cup 'sceptic' :p
 
Sitting snugly in my lounge I congratulated myself for having the good sense to watch the game on TV:

- No crowds
- No Queues
- The drinks in my fridge were reasonably priced, i.e. exactly what they cost at my local bottle store
- The snacks in the kitchen were only 3,6m away from the couch
- It only took 4,8 seconds to get more snacks.
- No queues at the kitchen counter
Also, an added plus was that the toilet was only 4,1m from the couch.

Now, as for those perky vuvuzelas, I hardly heard them. The gate/compression used in the sound system kept the noise way down and we hardly noticed it. No need for earplugs.

When the game was over, it took me 0,0 seconds to get back home, and I saved lotsa $$ on transport.

We had a real party.

Did I mention that we saw all the action in the game from close up? The cameramen were quite good, they kept their lenses pointed at the ball all the time.

:D
 
I was also at the stadium yesterday, and was also very impressed. Everything was planned well, nicely done.
As for the beer, yes R30 per beer, crazy!

As for the vuvuzelas, I like it, I don't care for it too much.
 
@Plazma: The buses were free to and from the stadium... :p

My seats were high enough to see all the action (behind the goal) so there was no problem with that...
 
I was behind the goal too, the side facing the sea. I really enjoyed it - the only problem we encountered were all the people walking in the bus lane - the buses couldn't pass and we were held up quite a bit. Overall, I had a very good time :) I also noticed that the players slipped very often - I thought it was because of the type of grass, or because of the dew, not sure what else could have caused it.
 
That was flipping awesome! The atmosphere in Cape Town itself yesterday was great. I'm really impressed with how well everything has been organised and how smoothly it all went. The only issue was with regards to getting past the first / security check (those tents) before getting to the actual gates of the stadium. People were just standing in massive groups and barely moving with little or no direction whatsoever!

Once inside the superb stadium, there really was nothing to complain about in my opinion! Looking forward to Italy vs Paraguay on Monday night. :D
 
Smurfatefrog said:
And I assume Budweiser is the only beer option?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, yes.

hyperian said:
I was behind the goal too, the side facing the sea. I really enjoyed it - the only problem we encountered were all the people walking in the bus lane - the buses couldn't pass and we were held up quite a bit. Overall, I had a very good time :) I also noticed that the players slipped very often - I thought it was because of the type of grass, or because of the dew, not sure what else could have caused it.
Click to expand...

Yeah I was also on that side :). I watched the Bafana Bafana vs. Mexico at home and thought I'd be really late but a friend drove us from Claremont to the Fan Walk - there was literally no traffic. I was quite surprised.

mikkelz_za said:
That was flipping awesome! The atmosphere in Cape Town itself yesterday was great. I'm really impressed with how well everything has been organised and how smoothly it all went. The only issue was with regards to getting past the first / security check (those tents) before getting to the actual gates of the stadium. People were just standing in massive groups and barely moving with little or no direction whatsoever!

Once inside the superb stadium, there really was nothing to complain about in my opinion! Looking forward to Italy vs Paraguay on Monday night. :D
Click to expand...

I was scared a riot might break out or something :p. I think it was because it most people's first time there so no-one knew where to go.
 
Strange, I thought alcohol wasn't allowed inside the stadiums. As fas was weapons go, a broken beer bottle can do some damage. Even an unbroken one when used to hit someone over the head. Thankfully I didn't see anyone misbehaving or chundering.
 
Chris said:
[*] Prices at the stadium - you're looking at R30 (or so I was told) for a Budweiser, R15 for a Coke and R20 for an ice-cream.
Click to expand...

I agree on this note. The LOC or FIFA should have exerted control here (unless they did and that is why these prices are so high?). I was in the media centre today at Moses Mabhida and the prices reflected matched these. Add to it R30 for some hot chips, R10 for a small packet of crisps, a chicken burger for R40, and a hot meal for R75 (that was one main dish and two side veggies). Here you have the world's journalists gathering and they will go back saying how expensive SA is! We ventured outside and found a street vendor selling cokes just outside for "only" R10.
 
hyperian said:
Strange, I thought alcohol wasn't allowed inside the stadiums. As fas was weapons go, a broken beer bottle can do some damage. Even an unbroken one when used to hit someone over the head. Thankfully I didn't see anyone misbehaving or chundering.
Click to expand...

As far as I am aware the Buds I saw on sale appeared to be in plastic bottles. Also the Cokes are sold without lids. I made the assumption that this was either so they could not be carried out of the media centre into the stadium or to reduce the likelihood of a full one being used as a missile.
 
If u really wana watch football i dont see how u can at a stadium.U've got people jumping and standing up most of the game,unless u hav 20/20 vision i dont know how u can see anything.Plus you got 1 angle to watch the game at.The only reason to go would be for the atmosphere.So if u really want to watch the game instead of atmosphere the best option would be go to Plazma's house.
 
LancelotSA said:
As far as I am aware the Buds I saw on sale appeared to be in plastic bottles. Also the Cokes are sold without lids. I made the assumption that this was either so they could not be carried out of the media centre into the stadium or to reduce the likelihood of a full one being used as a missile.
Click to expand...

There were beer bottles at the Cape Town stadium. There should definitely be a rule for future World Cups that beer is only served in plastic cups. As Hyperian said, beer bottles are a favourite weapon for football hooligans.

lilggg said:
If u really wana watch football i dont see how u can at a stadium.U've got people jumping and standing up most of the game,unless u hav 20/20 vision i dont know how u can see anything.Plus you got 1 angle to watch the game at.The only reason to go would be for the atmosphere.So if u really want to watch the game instead of atmosphere the best option would be go to Plazma's house.
Click to expand...

Actually, most of the time people are sitting - it's only when the crowd get 'excited' - e.g. when a team is close to the goal - that the crowd stands up. About 95% of the match, people were sitting.
 
Im half blind so maybe thats why.Never been to a soccer match,can barely see whats going on at a rugby game,all i see is the players no ball so i just gotta guess whats happening.But if u sitting behind the posts i dont see how u can see whats hapopening unless u very high up.
 
Yeah as long as the fridge is full when i get there,ill be visiting plazma on wednesday,ill start walkign to CT now.
 
Nothing beats being at the stadium for a big game!!

That goes for any sport...
 
The seats at the durban stadium are so far from the pitch,if i go one day ill take binoculars
 
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