Category: world cup 2010

Short-sighted Idiots

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As FIFA announced that 2 million tickets had been sold for the 2010 World Cup in June and took a well-justified pot shot at the idiots in the German and English media and “football family” (Uli Hoeness and Phil “Sphincter Face” Brown, they mean you) who keep taking unjustified pot shots at South Africa, [a regular reader] got in touch about the Ashanti Lodge in Gardens, Cape Town.

I actually know the place quite well – friends have stayed there (before we had a house big enough to put them up) and it’s a decent backpackers lodge like you’d find in any city across the world. Not spectacular, but then you don’t want spectacular when you’re backpacking – you want clean, comfy, basic and reasonably priced accommodation.
And that’s what you’ll get – well, until World Cup time.

See – Ashanti Lodge is one of those short-sighted businesses which has spied a quick buck ahead and is desperate to make cold hard cash as soon as possible. And it’s people like them who are putting tourists and fans off from coming to the World Cup. This short-sighted, greedy, money-grabbing behaviour also helps in discouraging those who do come out for the tournament from coming back. It is, if you’ll pardon the pun, a huge own goal.

Ashanti Rates – note that special conditions apply to the World Cup bookings as well

I’m familiar with the wonderful Capitalist ideology of Supply and Demand, and I’m also aware that a lot of people want to make Cape Town their base for the World Cup. However, in my humble opinion these two facts can not justify a 309% increase in the price of a room for the duration.

Take the En-Suite (woo!) QUAD: R3,600 is $480 or £300 – that’s R900, $120 or £75 per person to sleep in a room with 3 others.
Usually in June (remember – that’s winter here!), R900 would get you a pretty decent room in a 3 or 4 star hotel. Not a shared bed at a backpackers lodge with your wife, Farty Terry from Scunthorpe and his obnoxious brother, Jim.

I’m sure there are many other establishments out there who are going to try and rip World Cup fans off as much as possible – this one was just brought to my attention. I don’t expect any of them to change their behaviour based on this post.  But there’s still value for me in pointing out their greed, their short-sightedness and their apparent lack of business acumen.

These are fine examples of local people who are going to ruin the legacy of the World Cup for South Africa.

Cape Town Stadium: Truly Magnificent

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As promised, I can say I was there at the first ever football match played at Cape Town’s 2010 World Cup stadium. And what an experience. As ever, a big football match in the Mother City brought out the true spirit of the Rainbow Nation – every colour, every age – all just there to share in the historic moment and to have a great time.

The standard of the actual football wasn’t much to write home about, unless you are a fan of words like “rubbish” and “dull” and the phrase “couldn’t score in a brothel”, but the weather was perfect, the atmosphere superb, the organisation faultless and the stadium itself: truly magnificent. It was fascinating to watch as people came in and just stared in awe, open-mouthed.

I took almost a Gig of photographs, which I have managed to whittle down to 81 pictures and a video (HD, nogal!) of the very first kick off at the Stadium – courtesy of Ajax’s centre-forward, Diyo Sibisi.

Slideshow (in a separate window) | Flickr set

All in all, a brilliant day out and very promising for the World Cup. In a couple of weeks, we double the numbers for the Rugby – it’s going to be another sell-out and another great occasion.

EDIT: I’m told that there are some (continuing) complaints on certain (Cape Talk) radio stations about fans blowing vuvuzelas. The only noise I’m fed up with is the incessant whining of the whities who have suddenly become football fans (which is great) and now want to change the game to suit themselves (which is not). Bugger off.

Busy Day

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Today always promised to be a hectic day – from appointments in the morning, lunch with football friends and an afternoon at the Stadium through to the fancy dress party in the evening. Hence I am utilising the somewhat risky, but very helpful “scheduled post” option on WordPress. And I’m giving you a quota photo of the all-new, all-singing and occasionally-dancing Cape Town Stadium to be getting along with.

I would imagine that I’ll be taking a few photos at the game today, including some (or more), from inside the Polo Mint itself. Those will be on here tomorrow. Watch this space. (Not continuously, obviously – you’ve probably got other things to be getting on with.)

Don’t miss out

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It’s getting close to closing date for the third sales phase of World Cup 2010 tickets and you’d be silly to chance it and hope that you can buy them over the counter a bit later. Even though FIFA have promised to make it easy for South Africans to do just that, there’s a good chance that many of the more popular games will have sold out by the time that opportunity comes around.

The easiest way (assuming you have access to the internet) (and how are you reading this if you don’t) is via FIFA.com

You can apply for a maximum of 7 games and a maximum of four tickets per game. That’s 28 tickets. Plenty to go around, although it’s worth knowing that you will need the passport or ID number for each person you want to take along. (You will be given the opportunity to swap these people around a little later). 

Tickets for SA residents start at R140 for the first round games, although you could spend up to R6,300 per ticket if you want a posh seat for the final (that’s R25,200 if you want four). But your chances of getting them are pretty low. Which is gonna be a bummer when you’re sat at home watching England beat whoever on July 11th, but which will mean that at least you can eat in the intervening period.

If you need any further pushing as to why you shouldn’t miss out – Carlos Amato is here to help.