World Cup Guidelines E-mail? Is this scare-mongering?

[LazyLion]

Got this by e-mail several times now...

After attending an FNB Business dinner last week where Gary Bailey (who has been involved in the last two World Cups) presented some stats on World Cup expectations I have taken the liberty of sharing a few points that will affect our business , deliveries and our lives !

1) Schools will be closed for almost over 4 weeks during the World Cup – the inland provinces from 10th June to 12th July. What do you do with your kids?
2) Air tickets to Cape Town (for example) will cost about R8,000 per seat as some flights have to leave same night after the games due to accommodation problems in PLZ/CPT /DBN/BLOEM. So the flights will operate 24 hours. Expect NOISE. Expect TRAFFIC around airports all hours.
3) Fresh veggies and fruit will be scarce, if not unavailable, during this time. For the World Cup in Germany, they had to import them.
4) Traffic will increase by about 30% at the times of the games as fans go to the grounds or FANPARKS (games start at 13.30 , 16.00 and 2030 hrs). This is obviously the best time to fly - whilst matches are on!
5) Road areas around stadiums will be closed off.
6) It is expected that 550,000 people will be travelling to/from matches and 100,000 per match day… Expect considerable delays on match days.
7) There will not be parking available at airports - so arrange drop offs.
8) 4,800 buses will be operational and there will be restrictions on truckers/hauliers , etc. so we need to plan with clients and especially on containers needing haulage.
9) “Fan Parks” will be a huge attraction (see the list of Fan Parks ) and traffic to/from those areas will be extremely congested. At one Fan Park in Germany 500,000 people pitched up, consuming during the events, 3 million sausages, 1 million litres of beer, etc. Think of the logistics and TOILETS … !

Please see the attached plan/dates.

Companies will have to plan with importers. Deliveries will be severely disrupted as will commitments to deliver on the same day as flight arrival for airfreight imports.

So do you lock up office and stay home? Or do you plan now and make it work! Do you take a holiday at that time?

The e-mail has this attachment as well...
http://www.quickshare.co.za/files/ph5eign8/wcguide.pdf.html

Sounds like some of it could be a possibility, but some of it is a bit over the top. Sounds like it is designed to create panic.

 

[Bismuth]

Sounds like a bit of scare-mongering to me. Parking is NEVER available at airports, unless you know where to look, and they are also generally noisy places.

And why the heck would they close schools, they didn't during the Rugby and Cricket World Cups?.

B

 

[Devill]

This is silly. Yes having 1 million (IIRC) extra people in SA for the soccer will create a tad more traffic etc etc. but no more veggies?!

 

[tco21]

Got the same one.

 

[Nerfherder]

Sounds like typical scare-mongering... from the same people that brought you Uhuru.

Its the WC guys... not the end of the world

 

[EvilDarkElf]

My BF is Russian (i.e. not South African and from a country where football is the primary spectator sport), he keeps telling me no-one in SA understands how many people will pitch up for the 2010 world cup, or how fanatical some of them will be. He insists that the rugby and cricket world cups were nothing by comparison - that the number of people who support rugby for instance is not 1/10 as many as who support football if one looks at the global population. I'm not sure I agree with him, but he at least intends to not be in SA at the time, even though he would very much like to attend a game.

 

[EvilDarkElf]

Added - all of that mentioned looks possible if the organisers don't plan well or screw up the execution. This is conceivable, but definitely not a foregone conclusion.

 

[tco21]

I still think that the best thing to do during the WC is to go for a holiday overseas. Tickets will be way cheaper and you'll be going in the opposite direction of everyone else.

 

[elysian]

And why the heck would they close schools, they didn't during the Rugby and Cricket World Cups?.

Suppose the majority of SA's school kids will be bunking school anyway - to spend it in or outside the 'fanparks'.

 

[arf9999]

The schools will be closed, as well as the universities and colleges. True.

No-one knows what an air ticket will cost... the rates haven't been released yet. False

24 hour flights - Maybe

Traffic around airport - and this is different from now?

Fresh veggies and fruit - Germany had to import them during 2006 (But then Germany ALWAYS imports). - shouldn't be an issue.

Traffic will increase by 30% before matches - Why? The biggest stadium only houses 90 thousand people. Fanfests only accommodate 50 thousand. More people travel on the Ben Schoeman daily than that.. Traffic will increase - but hopefully the roads will be finished.

Roads around stadiums will be closed off - true.

100,000 people per match day.... in three different cities...

9) “Fan Parks” will be a huge attraction (see the list of Fan Parks ) and traffic to/from those areas will be extremely congested. At one Fan Park in Germany 500,000 people pitched up, consuming during the events, 3 million sausages, 1 million litres of beer, etc. Think of the logistics and TOILETS … !

This is bull****, even the Berlin Fanfest only had around 200000 people. At the German fanfests there were plenty of people, especially as it was midsummer, and you can get to Germany from pretty much anywhere in Western Europe in a few hours by train. In SA the Fanfests will hold a maximum of 100,000 people (Durban), most of the others are only going to hold between 20k and 50k. Also, it'll be midwinter.

 

[LancelotSA]

I saw this email and was rather peeved myself. Pathetic. Really pathetic. It is going to be a great time to be in this country!

Roll on 2010!

So you may get caught in a traffic jam on match day. So be it.

 

[Creag]

So the future is a tad uncertain, but at least it should be an exciting time for our country, assuming they LOC has got their planning right. Else who knows...?

Just school holidays will be a bit of a problem if I can't find holiday care

 

[AjAx30]

can confirm that its very likely that there will be flights almost 24hours a day.. extra aircraft are gonna be brought in and alot of extra flights planned to fly the passengers to the games and back to their hotels (in Mauritius / george / you name it..)

BUT the noise made by modern aircraft is really not that bad.. all airports have noise reduction procedures and there will most likely be new measures introduced for the past midnight flights..

 

[LancelotSA]

BUT the noise made by modern aircraft is really not that bad.. all airports have noise reduction procedures and there will most likely be new measures introduced for the past midnight flights..

We paid a visit to Durban airport over the weekend for a spot of geocaching. We were at both ends of the runway. Planes took off and landed less than 20m above us. I was surprised. It was not nearly as loud as I assumed it would be.

 

[Bismuth]

We paid a visit to Durban airport over the weekend for a spot of geocaching. We were at both ends of the runway. Planes took off and landed less than 20m above us. I was surprised. It was not nearly as loud as I assumed it would be.

You will hear the older aircraft coming from a mile away, like the 737-200s, and even some older MDs without the noise-reduction mods, but otherwise the noise isn't bad from newer aircraft.

B

 

[risingtide]

My BF is Russian (i.e. not South African and from a country where football is the primary spectator sport), he keeps telling me no-one in SA understands how many people will pitch up for the 2010 world cup, or how fanatical some of them will be. He insists that the rugby and cricket world cups were nothing by comparison -

I tend to agree with him.

The WC will be great. The question is whether we handle greatness.

 

[Shake&Bake]

I like the idea of leaving the country during that time...

 

[badtrev]

Schools normally close in the middle of the year anyway...