Keeping it real in 2010

Ke nako! It is time!

That’s right soccer fans, 2010 has arrived and the country is being revved up for the biggest month long party we have seen since the 2003 cricket and 1995 rugby World Cups. Much has been made of SA’s ability (with many of those doubters basing their convictions on stereotypes about Africa itself) to host the tournament, with scumbag entrepreneurs in this country hopping on the band wagon which isn’t helping matters (stab vests for R510? Seriously, go back to 1992, stay there and be ashamed).

The tournament, with five and a bit months to go, is going to be the biggest thing that has ever hit our shores. Oh sure, we as a country have hosted plenty of events and conferences, but nothing like this before.

Just look at the changes in infrastructure that the major metropolitan centres are receiving just so we are ‘up to speed’ or whatever term Fifa like to use for such things. Cape Town is a tangled wire of roads (just ask the poor bastards who are stuck on the N2 everyday), Johannesburg and Pretoria is seeing another lane being added to the N1, Africa’s busiest highway, and Durban is experiencing the same thing to go along with their shiny new stadium (while the Moses Mabhida is truly awesome, it’s built next to another rather large stadium in the shape of Absa Stadium/Kings Park. Does Durban really need both?).

Positive vibes abound wherever you go, since the World Cup is set to generate billions of rands of income for local businesses. Everyone is looking forward to a carnival, and let me say this: I certainly count myself amongst the converted, and am extremely hopeful the tournament benefits South Africa to its maximum effect. I believe SA hosting the tournament will do wonders for our national moral, since often we are dragged down by the negative stories constantly put before us everyday. I am a World Cup fan but, and there is always a but, I have these nagging doubts in the back of my mind regarding the following:

1. Nelspruit and Polokwane are set to become white elephant country
Both cities are receiving brand new purpose built stadiums, each with a capacity beyond 40 000 people. Both cities are hosting 4 games each, and while it’s a great idea to spread the joys of the Cup to the smaller metros, what will happen to these stadiums once the tournament leaves? Both stadiums do not have either a regular Currie Cup or PSL side using the cities as their home base, so the stadiums will have to be subsidised by government unless a mercurial plan can be conceived. The same can be murmured about the Moses Mabhida stadium, but I have faith in Durban to do something with it, since surely they are going to use the stadium for something right? The Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium will also need to be subsidised for a while, but eventually (and only God knows the answer to this), the Southern Kings will play Super rugby. Whether we have to wait for the return of the messiah is a completely different kettle of fish.

2. Not everyone will get rich
Small businesses are working themselves into a frenzy, especially start up accommodation and tour companies, to position themselves in the right place to make maximum profit from Fifa’s nest egg. Sure, certain individuals and businesses will benefit, but with commercial restrictions around the tournament mimicking a straight-jacket, some if not the majority of World Cup-business pioneers will find that the effort they put in before the tournament will not equal the outcome. Large companies, with embedded infrastructure, will benefit the most along with paying sponsors. The thing about gold rushes is that once everyone knows about, as we have known about the World Cup for quite some time, the profits get divided among an ever increasing pie of fortune hunters. Expect more of the same from 2010.

3. Foreigners will get mugged and robbed
While the government has guaranteed the safety of all travellers (all three million of them) coming to this country for 2010, there will be some who will fall victim to crime. Anyone expecting otherwise would be naive in doing so. There will be stories peddled by the international press (who just love to show Africa as a place of bandits and wizards) and the South African press (who go shark-sniffs-blood crazy if they can make a quick buck) telling us how much we suck as a host country. Oh sure, when the tournament begins the SA papers will be awash with patriotism and all that jazz, but once the World Cup gets going and South Africa don’t make it past the group stages (I pray Bafana Bafana prove me wrong … Carlos, I hope you are listening), they will revert to the same old sensationalised scare tactics they use to sell papers now.

4. Africa’s World Cup? Really?
Much fan-fare has been made that this is Africa’s World Cup as much as it is South Africa’s. Sorry, but that is pushing it since it isn’t like the rest of Africa clubbed in when deciding on who will be spending what on the tournament. True, it is on the African continent but as we know, SA is a country of haves, and have nots. We don’t have the world’s highest Gini co-efficient (a measure of the inequality between rich and poor) for nothing. There is a reason why the ticket uptake in SA has been so low Mr. Jordaan: normal South Africans can’t afford the tickets, even at R140. And don’t get me started on the application process — I took one look at the order form and all the bullshit you need to go through to get a ticket, and just got over it. Either you have to do this, or do it online. How many South Africans have the Internet at home? Not too many. April is when tickets will be available over the counter, so perhaps we’ll see a change in fortunes. Lets cross fingers for the LOC on that one …
Also, when it comes to South African ticket sales for foreign team fixtures, guess who is leading the way? England. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why.

5. The tournament is in winter … not exactly party central
SA in the summer rocks. From Cape Town to Johannesburg to Durban to the Karoo to Limpopo, each of SA’s unique climates offers something distinctive about its summer, and its usually pretty hot. Summer is also party time.
With the tournament being hosted in winter, all the adverts and billboards of supporters wearing T-shirts and shorts appears a bit of a fantasy doesn’t it? Who in their right mind would dress up in summer wear for a winter where either it rains a lot or is bitterly cold? Unless you are watching the game at home … I don’t think so.
So, while we should open the tournament with open arms and be the best damn host country we can be, let us ensure that we don’t forget that while this is a massive coup for our country, the tournament is only here for a month and then, poof, it is gone. It will be only then that we can assess whether it was worth it or not. I suspect it will be, but not everything will go according to plan, and that should be accepted as a given.