South Africa Ticket sales much slower than organisers expected

by johnjahafanclub on Jan 21, 2010 3:26 PM EST Comment 4 comments

I am not at all surprised by the news coming out of SA that ticket sales are much lower than expected. This has the look of Korea/Japan all over again, when hundreds of thousands of tickets went unsold, and stadiums were half empty despite organizers giving away tens of thousands of free tickets at the last second to try to get people to come out.

Dutch and German football authorities have already confirmed that supply has far exceeded demand for tickets for their matches, and tomorrow England fans are likely to find themselves in the unusual position of discovering that requests have not exceeded the number on offer.

Average attendance at Korea/Japan was only 40,000, compared with 52,000 in 2006, 43,000 in 1998, 68,000 in 1994, and 48,000 in 1990. Also, that 40,000 figure for Korea/Japan is inflated because tens of thousands of those in "attendance" received free tickets the day of or day before the match. Looks like we will be facing this crap all over again this summer.

Also, this should dispel once and for all the myth that holding major sports tournaments is an economic boon to countries. It's not, as has been shown in the recent book Soccernomics. It's a tremendous waste of (limited) resources that should be spent on actual economic revitalization programs and education in a developing country like South Africa.

Just look at Greece, a country far more developed than South Africa. Their stadiums from the Athens Olympics are falling apart and are in a state of disrepair, and the government is still mired in a massive amount of debt that it undertook to pay for these one-and-done, economically useless projects. They don't even use two thirds of the stadiums anymore.

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So what about Rio?

I would expect this to be much the same in Rio in 2014, and while I understand the desire to share the beautiful game with nations around the world, I do believe we do a dis-service to those nations long term. I would much rather see the games held where not only the rabid fans of teams show up, but where the local residents are able to show up in number to support the World Cup.

It is clear that a balance needs to be struck between the allowing the games to be held in a nation that can handle them, and one that tries to leverage them as economic recovery packages, but I think the schedule should have been the US in 2014, perhaps a Rio in 2018, and the UK in 2022.

by denz on Jan 21, 2010 6:57 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Brazil 2014 Will Be Interesting

Things it has going for it:
1) Has larger soccer fan population than Korea/Japan and SA. Also is located closer to more soccer mad countries like Argentina, Columbia, Chile, etc, unlike the countries that surround Korea/Japan and SA.
2) Is wealthier and more developed than SA.
3) Is somewhat closer to USA/Mexico fans than Korea/Japan and SA.

Things against it:
1) Still really far from the huge traveling fan bases of Europe.
2) Poorer populace than Korea/Japan.
3) Still a schlep from USA/Mexico to get there.
4) Bad time zones for European TV audiences.

Cust is the new Jaha.

by johnjahafanclub on Jan 21, 2010 7:54 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Rio will be fine

Remember that Brazil has already successfully hosted the world cup back in 1950. Rio is a major city and infrastructure is generally pretty good. I went to a Flamengo game at the Maracana stadium in 2008 and while the place could use some sprucing up, it is fully functional as is. And that’s the stadium that they crammed 180,000 to 200,000 people into for the finals last time, so low attendance shouldn’t be a problem.

There are plenty of other big stadiums as well and overall I’d say Brazil is very close to the USA, Germany or the UK in the ability to host a world cup with facilities that are mostly already in place.

oc phil

by oc phil on Feb 2, 2010 2:38 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I Agree

Brazil should be way better than South Africa and Korea/Japan.

I have a few Brazilian friends and I am looking forward to traveling to this one.

You can change your job, you can change your wife, you can even change your gender, but you can never change your club.
Win or lose, we will always be here for you.
Fear no foe, wherever we go.

by johnjahafanclub on Feb 4, 2010 10:08 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs