76% less Africans than expected at SWC

Mila

Mila

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http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/76-less-Africans-than-expected-at-SWC-20100518


Cape Town - Of the 230 000 foreign fans who have bought tickets, just 11 300 are African - 76% less than originally forecast for the first World Cup on African soil, Tourism Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk told lawmakers at a World Cup readiness briefing on Tuesday.

"Only 2% of those tickets are to Africans. Originally we expected around 48 000," he said.

"There are two reasons (for this). It is the distribution channels. People in Africa don't buy tickets on the internet. It was a huge mistake that I think FIFA-MATCH made and also I believe the unaffordable pricing (was to blame)."

South Africa expects 300 000 visitors for the World Cup next month, down from an initial forecast of 450 000, but the country remains confident of full stadiums, Schalkwyk said.

"We will probably see around 300 000 international arrivals for the World Cup - just under or just more than that."

"It may be a little bit less than what we expected... but four years ago nobody expected the global recession," he said, quickly adding: "But it is still a lot of people. Our stadiums are going to be full, it is going to an exceptionally good World Cup."

Van Schalkwyk offered FIFA advice for hosting the tournament in developing countries where internet availability is low. The next World Cup will be hosted by Brazil in 2014.

"Look at the way that you sell tickets. It does not work in developing countries and on continents such as Africa. People don't buy tickets through the internet, (not) large numbers of people," Van Schalkwyk said.

South Africa invested R33bn in the first World Cup on the African continent, with FIFA having sold more than 2.5 million of some three million tickets just over three weeks from the June 11 kick-off.

The cheapest World Cup tickets of R140 were reserved for South Africans or legal residents in the country
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Your opinion, Mila? Or just sharing?

This has been covered extensively in the media already. Effectively it boils down to affordability. Other African countries did not have access to the cheap SA resident tickets. They had to pay full price. I read somewhere that there were less than 10 Zimbabwean applications for tickets. But then the assumption I'd make is that they got someone in SA to buy their tickets at the cheaper price....

This of course does not mean that the World Cup is not going to be supported in those African countries. I'm sure it is still creating a buzz across the entire continent.
 
Fifa's fault to missing the needs of the African populations. It's actually quite sad that the WORLD cup is mainly exclusive to a few countries.
 
eltherza said:
Fifa's fault to missing the needs of the African populations. It's actually quite sad that the WORLD cup is mainly exclusive to a few countries.
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Yip, I think FIFA learnt a lot from this world cup. They are already talking about implementing over the counter sales earlier in Brazil.

Well anyway, I'm out for the day. I am off to my world cup volunteer induction at Moses Mabhida today :)
 
It's current affairs.

Does my opinion matter? Strangely I think not.

But here it goes: The recession is hitting the WC hard.
 
This morning on CapeTalk someone was blaming FIFA for selling tickets via the internet.
 
Mila said:
It's current affairs.

Does my opinion matter? Strangely I think not.

But here it goes: The recession is hitting the WC hard.
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I think he's trying to say why copy & paste articles & then go away... what's the point of your post. People could read the article in their daily news site trawls:)
 
Mila said:
It's current affairs.

Does my opinion matter? Strangely I think not.

But here it goes: The recession is hitting the WC hard.
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Mila, I am fully aware that it is current affairs but surely if you post something you have an opinion on it. Why not share that with the rest of us? It results in far more meaningful discussions. If the reason was merely to point out the effect of the recession on world cup ticket sales I think you'll find that this has been discussed at length elsewhere on this forum already.

Also I still think when it comes to Africa it is less recession and more normal day to day affordability. Have you seen the price of tickets for domestic soccer matches? Even the cheapest world cup tickets, only available to residents, are a number of times more expensive than these.
 
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R13... said:
I think he's trying to say why copy & paste articles & then go away... what's the point of your post. People could read the article in their daily news site trawls:)
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I agree, I just want to start the discussion. Mostly when I post an oppinion I get flamed and the thread goes the wrong way so I rather just read your guys posts.:o

BUT point taken will post my opinion next time. :)
 
My opinion is that a lot of the marketing/promotional hype around the SWC was not based on reality but on wishful thinking. It very much reminds me of the old story about the definition of a realist: an optimist with experience. Unfortunately I think that the process of gaining experience is going to be rather painfull.
 
How did they expect so many Africans to get here? Have they noticed the state of Africa?

Not exactly a continent of wealthy people, mostly a continent of very poor people. How did they figure so many would be able to travel, pay for a place to stay and buy tickets?

I doubt the price of the tickets is the problem, i think the price to get here and stay here is the problem.
 
VanZan said:
My opinion is that a lot of the marketing/promotional hype around the SWC was not based on reality but on wishful thinking. It very much reminds me of the old story about the definition of a realist: an optimist with experience. Unfortunately I think that the process of gaining experience is going to be rather painfull.
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World cup will be hailed an amazing success. It will be like South Africa with be bukk@ked with extreme praise as a total heroic Utopian nation. Not because we're going to do anything exceptionally amazing, but because people like you have planted such a seed of pessimism that the expectations have been set so extremely low. Keep it up. The more people are expecting panga's gangs and starving children will flies on them , the more likely this succeeds as a marketing campaign. The 400 000 people we going to have here are not really that significant. It's the journalists were trying to win over. And after months of telling the "South Africa is a war zone , dump angle" from afar, what do you think they're going to report when they get here and see how nice and perfectly normal it actually is ?

Ha ha ha. World cup for the win !


If you're the type of person who has been trying to convince the world that South Africa is so god damn awful for the past 16 years you must be nipping in your pants right now. Like you're a mischievous kid just about to be caught out for a big lie. I think at least some of you must be worried that we are going to come out of this smelling like roses. I've certainly notice the "You will go home in body bags" type rhetoric has slowed down now that people have realised it's too late. Backpedaling ?
 
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Perfect and normal? Ya you need help buddie.

I agree with world cup FTW, as for SA being perfect well you don't live in SA because it is far from perfect. Having criminals just outside your door while they steal your shyte, for me at least that is not perfect

RIP my playstation 3 :(, you will be missed but the upside is i am alive. So YAY for SA i made it out alive :D.
 
killadoob said:
Perfect and normal? Ya you need help buddie.

I agree with world cup FTW, as for SA being perfect well you don't live in SA because it is far from perfect. Perfect is not having criminals just outside your door while they steal your shyte, for me at least that is not perfect

RIP my playstation 3 :(, you will be missed but the upside is i am alive. So YAY for SA i made it out alive :D.
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No it's not perfect. That's kind of my point. But when you exaggerate to the extent people coming are expecting Rwanda mixed with shock and awe bagdad they're not going to be able to help themselves feeling that "Wow, if this country is so terrible like I heard, they must have done a great clean up job for the world cup. Cause it does not seem anything close to the hell the white South Africans described previously. It's actually pretty damn nice now and I feel perfectly safe. Viva A.N.C ! Viva !)
 
They have done a good job cleaning it up, how many SA police will be out for the world cup? How many of those cops will go back to being useless after?

Please making this country look good during the world cup is great and i hope they keep it safe for the tourists, pity though they cannot keep it safe for the people who actually live here and pay taxes.
 
killadoob said:
They have done a good job cleaning it up, how many SA police will be out for the world cup? How many of those cops will go back to being useless after?

Please making this country look good during the world cup is great and i hope they keep it safe for the tourists, pity though they cannot keep it safe for the people who actually live here and pay taxes.
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Oh so now they doing a good job with the world cup ?

More Backpedaling ! I have been expecting a wave of this to come as the world cup approaches for a while now .And so it begins !
 
Good, now we don't have to worry about them not going back home...
 
R13... said:
That's because they are already here... Do you think only 5000 or so Nigerians are going to be at the Nigeria games? Hell no!
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I am sure they could send a few thousand more ;)
 
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