“Cape Town is a wonderful organiser of eight matches and a semi-final for the World Cup”, according to FIFA President Sepp Blatter.   At a recent presentation to the industry, Teral Cullen, Director of the 2010 World Cup, City of Cape Town, spoke enthusiastically about how on the ball Cape Town is for 2010.   She likened the World Cup to a “tsunami”.

The event is creating a legacy for Cape Town and its citizens, in that it will benefit from an upgraded airport, station, railway carriages, road and transport system, as well as new hotel and event/conference infrastructure worth R 9 billion.   Cullen is positioning Cape Town as the “Party Capital of Africa”, and she says that the media exposure that Cape Town will receive from the event cannot be bought for any money.    She is looking at linking Cape Town, with its world heritage site, to Cairo, with its world wonder, and hopes to increase Cape Town’s desirability as an investment and tourism destination.

The dates for the Cape Town matches have been announced, and many of them fall on weekends, which is favourable for attendance and drawing visitors to the Mother City, says Cullen.  The 2010 Cape Town match dates are 8, 11, 14, 18, 21, 24 and 29 June, and 3 and 7 July, the last date being a semi-final.

Blatter would like to have the 2010 Opening Ceremony take place in Cape Town, but FIFA representatives insist that the opening ceremony will not be a separate event, and will precede the opening match on 11 June 2010, which is scheduled for Soccer City in Johannesburg.

Construction of the Green Point stadium is progressing well, and the roof is expected to be completed in twelve months from now.  The R 429 million contract for the roof has been awarded to Birdair Pfeifer, a joint venture between an American and a German company, reports the Cape Argus.   The roof will rest on 72 columns, and will incorporate the lighting, doing away with the need for external lighting as used for the old Green Point stadium, which caused a disturbance to local residents.  The roof will cover most spectators, and has been designed to reduce the noise to not inconvenience residents close by too much.

The stadium completion date is mid-December next year, in time for a visit to Cape Town of 100 broadcasters, in town for the announcement of the final team draw on 4 December 2009.  The 68 000-seater will reduce to 58 000 seats once the World Cup is over.

The stadium management contract has been awarded to Stadia France, which has linked up with star ex-Springbok player Morne du Plessis in its bid to manage the new Cape Town stadium.   The French company has been praised for the fine stadia it manages around the world.

The FIFA accommodation and ticketing agency MATCH is struggling to find support amongst Guest Houses and B&B’s, to make their accommodation available for the 2010 World Cup. Whilst 5 742 hotel rooms have already been booked via MATCH in Cape Town, only 735 “non-hotel rooms”, which could include B & B’s, self-catering establishments, and even university residences, boarding schools and college accommodation, have been booked, according to the Cape Argus. In total 24 725 rooms have been booked with MATCH around the country, more than half short of the 55 000 room target.

Small accommodation establishments feel uncomfortable about making 80 % of their rooms a-whale-able to MATCH, and to accept MATCH’s unfavourable cancellation policy. In 2006, MATCH cancelled large numbers of rooms in German hotels at short notice, without penalty. Also, the MATCH rate directive of 16 % on top of the 2007 rate, to set the 2010 rate, is not acceptable to many establishments, given that the inflation rate currently is around 12 %, which would leave establishments out of pocket. MATCH adds on 40 % to the small accommodation rates for its commission, which will make these establishments look far more expensive than they are in reality. Hotels, it would appear, are not too enchanted with the MATCH terms either, 30 % commission off their rack rates going to MATCH.

The World Cup 2010 Local Organising Committee has announced that the four lowest price category match tickets will only be available for sale to South Africans. More than 2 million tickets will go on sale from February next year, reports the Cape Times. This is the strongest indicator of FIFA’s confidence in South Africa’s ability to host this prestigious sports event.  The cheapest ticket price for the World Cup will be R 140, based on a pegged exchange rate of $ 1 = R 7, for the next two years.

South Africans will be limited to buying four tickets per match per family, and for only seven matches, to spread ticket sales as broadly as possible. More than 120 000 complimentary tickets will be made available to “nation builders”, and could include construction and transport workers.

Excellent news is that FNB Brand Director Derek Carstens, once an Account Director at advertising agency JWT, has been seconded to head up the marketing of World Cup 2010, and to ensure its commercial success. He sees the event as a major opportunity to unite all South Africans.

Blatter visited Johannesburg and Cape Town last week, and said “my objective is to reassure the whole country of Fifa’s 110 % commitment … to organise Fifa’s 2010 World Cup”, reports the Cape Argus.   He reiterated that FIFA’s Plan B and Plan C for 2010 are all South Africa.   Less than three months ago Blatter had indicated that he had a Plan B as an alternative to South Africa, but that this would only apply in the event of a natural disaster.

On his visit to Cape Town he berated the poor performance of the national Bafana Bafana soccer team, which he says has already had four years to improve its performance, but has not managed to do so.

Blatter said “I go back to Zurich a happy man”, reports the Cape Times, at the conclusion of his visit. He said that the 2010 World Cup will be a “great, great success”, and said it would be an exceptional and the best World Cup event ever. He praised the progress of the stadium construction and the planning for transportation to the stadia, and said that everything is “on track”. He even downplayed the crime situation, and the effect it would have on the event.

Blatter stressed that the Confederations Cup, which is a “warm-up” a year ahead of the World Cup, needed to receive communication support, not only in South Africa, but also in the qualifying countries Spain, Egypt, New Zealand, USA, Brazil and Iraq. The Confederations Cup will run from 14 - 28 June 2009. Unfortunately no matches will be played in Cape Town, as the stadium completion date is six months after the Confederations Cup. Tickets for the Confederations Cup go on sale from 23 November this year.   The Port Elizabeth stadium will also not be completed by June next year, and no longer will host the Confederations Cup matches.  The Confederations Cup matches will be played at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria, Ellis Park in Johannesburg, Royal Bafokeng in Rustenburg and  the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein.

Cleverly Blatter turned the undersupply of accommodation to MATCH, the FIFA ticketing and accommodation agency, into a positive, saying that demand for accommodation by soccer fans has outstripped the number of beds. This is hardly the case.

S A Tourism has reacted confidently to FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s comments about the shortage of accommodation for 2010, by stating that the country has more than enough accommodation for the event, with close to 100 000 graded rooms.  It has also indicated that the MATCH pricing policy is not acceptable ”…. MATCH wants to sign these (the balance of rooms needed) at below commercial market value.  We cannot allow Fifa to bulldoze the local industry” The Times reports SA Tourism CEO Moeketsi Mosola as saying.

To counter Blatter’s criticism about the lack of marketing for 2010, Mosola has announced that R 200 million will be spent on a destination marketing campaign for the event, reports Travelwires.

Mosola has cautioned the accommodation industry to charge reasonable rates in winter 2010, to support South Africa’s positioning as a value-for-money destination. The 40 % commission that MATCH charges on top of the establishments’ accommodation rates for 2010, according to a set formula, is contrary to SA Tourism’s pricing caution, as it will make establishments contracted to MATCH appear extremely expensive.