Excitement before the World Cup 2010
by Johann Ebersohn
3 Days before the official opening of the Soccer World Cup on the 11th of June 2010 at Soccer City in Johannesburg. South Africa is ready and waiting in AN-TI-CI-PA-TION.
We’ve had a lot of nay sayers about readiness and that we will not be able to pull it off in time, but we have done it. We have in previous years successfully hosted the Rugby World Cup, the Cricket World Cup and on very short notice an extremely successful Indian Cricket League. There might glitches, but we will be able to pull this off and show the rest of the world that Africa can.
In Cape Town the fan parks are ready to host all the fans that were not able to get tickets to the games. I was lucky in the first round where I got tickets for France – Uruguay that is also the opening game at the Cape Town stadium. An additional 164,000 tickets were released by FIFA on Friday and despite assurances that this time they will not have any system issues, their ticketing system crashed within minutes of the tickets sales starting. Hundreds of people queued during the night to get their hands on the last tickets for their favourite team and here in Cape Town it meant queuing in the cold and rain. This left an unpleasant taste with all the supporters despite FIFA’s apologies. I kept on trying on-line and was one of the lucky ones who got tickets, this time for Netherlands – Cameroon, before on-line ticketing was removed from the website. By early afternoon tickets sales were on track again and FIFA have said that 98% of all available tickets have now been sold.
Traveling around Cape Town I am reminded that World Cup fever has hit the country. One of the things you see all over is the South African flag on side mirrors of cars. I think this is a hot idea. Imagine all the foreign visitors arriving and most cars on the road have flags on their side mirrors. Now that is a massive impact. I am trying to find a pair that will fit on my motorbike. The idea isn’t a new one and it’s been done overseas, but Mini Cooper (BMW) was the first company to bring it to South Africa. They actually gave the mirror flags away for free to all Mini drivers and later gave them away to any vehicles provided people went in and asked for one which is great marketing.
Hyundai who is one of the official sponsor’s of FIFA’s big event has taken the opportunity to mount a massive blow your eardrums Vuvuzela on one of Cape Towns unfinished bridges. Yes, we have those and it has become urban legend as to why they were never completed. Imagine that humongous Vuvezala blowing its proverbial horn. It was thought up and executed by The Jupiter Drawing Room. I heard a report on the radio that they intend to use either a truck horn or a foghorn and blow it every time a goal is scored during the SWC. Now that will get the town buzzing.
