Vuvuzela South Africa

Engen Santos and Ajax Cape Town will inaugurate the world class Cape Town Stadium in Green Point today (Saturday, January 23, 2009).  Kickoff is at 4pm.

Like the inaugural match of the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban in December, this is a test run and only 20 000 tickets were sold.

Cape Town Derby Thriller

It is only fitting that the city of Cape Town chose a classic Cape derby to launch this beautiful 68,000-seat stadium. And football fans can expect a hot contest as The People’s Team try to pull a hat-trick of Cape derby wins, having already defeated the Urban Warriors 2-0 (away) and 1–0 (at home) earlier this season.

We know this is only a friendly so, only bragging rights are up for grabs, but this match at the Cape Town Stadium looks like a real Cape Derby Thriller

Cape Town Stadium – Green Features

The multi-purpose Cape Town stadium boasts special “green” features that is aimed to be completely environmentally-friendly, ensuring optimal water and energy saving.

Engen Santos – Proud to Be Part of History

On their website, Engen Santos captain Mogogi Gabonamong comments, “ Looking at pictures of the new stadium I am sure the game will generate a fantastic atmosphere and as we are playing against our neighbours we are very optimistic that this will become a great event in the history of the city.”

Sharing his sentiments, Engen Santos coach Boebie Solomons said, “ I feel very good (to play first on the new Cape Town Stadium) and with the excellent opposition, I am glad we were invited. I’m proud to be part of history being made with the team playing on such a fantastic surface.”

Sail Stadefrance said from the first press interview that only 20 000 tickets will be available for the opening of the Cape Town Stadium when Ajax Cape town play Santos.

This is an all ticket affair but the organisers did not expect to put up sold-out signs 10 days before the event.

Ajax Cape Town – Cape Town is Fanatical About Football

Shooz Mekuto the Ajax Cape Town PRO said on their website, “We are not surprised by the demand for more tickets. Cape Town is fanatical about football and when Ajax and Santos faced each other in the ABSA Cup final in 2007, the Athlone Stadium was packed to the rafters. This just shows that the support for local football is as passionate as ever.”

Billed as the Cape Town Stadium Soccer Festival, the event is hosted by the City of Cape Town and organised by the stadium’s operators, Sail Stadefrance, and includes live music from top South African Afro-fusion band, Freshlyground.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Durban and Cape Town are two of the Host Cities preparing themselves for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup.

I have just read two articles in bizcommunity.com about the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup. Both interesting and important, but they made me smile because the stories so reflect the general attitudes of the two cities involved -  Cape Town and Durban.

Cape Town Tourism Survey

Well, the Cape Town story is about the success of the FIFA Confederations Cup. Cape Town Tourism commissioned a survey. According to Dr Nikolaus Eberl, of the 323 international visitors canvassed, only one said he would not recommend South Africa as a holiday destination. 3.68% of respondents answered ‘maybe’, resulting into an aggregate brand advocacy score of 96% for destination SA.

In terms of destination branding, this is the highest brand advocacy score achieved by a FIFA World Cup host yet, beating the benchmark set by Germany in 2006 by almost eight percentage points, he says.

Now Durban, on the other hand has gone a bit lower on Maslow’s pyramid and put safety and security centre stage with less than a year to go before kick-off to the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup.

Safety and Security in Durban for 2010 World Cup

In Durban, a joint initiative has been established to boost safety and security during the football tournament. Safety and security planning is being co-ordinated between the South African Police Force, Durban Metro Police, Durban Beach Law Enforcement and independent security companies with deployment as a joint initiative.

Julie-May Ellingson, head of Durban’s Strategic Projects Unit and 2010 Programme, says, “Durban already has an enviable record for hosting large international events including the Cricket and Rugby World Cups, IPL 20/20 cricket, the FIFA preliminary draw, A1 motorsport and the Comrades Marathon and will be calling on that experience to ensure the same level of safety and security prevails during next year’s tournament.”

Ellingson says, “a joint operations centre will mobilize and reallocate resources and the overall safety and security planning will be collated by the Provincial Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (JOINTS). This structure will report directly to a national structure to allow for consistent and unified safety across South Africa.”

Popularity: 10% [?]

Louise Taylor is north-east football correspondent for the Guardian.  In this  capacity she found herself compelled to write a ridiculous  article – Why going to South Africa for the World Cup terrifies me.  In spite of this document of doom and gloom, she has never been to South Africa.

I’m almost speechless at her suppositions, arrogance and sweeping pronouncements :

Few readers could fail to be enticed – well, at least until they spotted the prices – but most will also ask themselves the questions: What about the crime? Is it safe?

and

What I would definitely balk at, though, is touring as a fan at next year’s World Cup – an event, with the final 12 months away, we are counting down to. Indeed, having done a bit of research on the subject, I know I’d be absolutely terrified.

Such fears are often as much about perception as statistics, but unfortunately the stats – not to mention much anecdotal evidence – confirm that football fans like me are right to be more than a little scared. After all, this is a country in which approximately 50 people are murdered every day.

Transport

Then she goes on to list all the terrible things about South Africa like the rapes and the murders and the crimes and the bad transport infrastructure

Marcotti wrote of some long, unpleasant drives in the dark after covering matches. Commenting on the lack of dual carriageways and lit highways in certain areas, he described negotiating one road heading towards Jo’burg as “like snorkeling in a sewer filled with squid ink…

World’s Biggest Security Firm ?

She also mentions the cheery fact (that I didn’t know and also don’t care about) that G4S, the world’s biggest security firm, has declined to work at next summer’s World Cup. ( Check the worry in my eyes!)

Nick Buckles, the organisation’s chief executive, took that decision after revealing that G4S rated South Africa more dangerous than Iraq and Afghanistan.

Jeeze Louise – now that is going a bit far, hey. I don’t know if it is you or this Buckles guy, but that is just flat out a big fat dirty lie!

World Cup Should have Gone to Egypt

Anyway this doomsday narrative concludes with Louise’s firm belief, as the Midland correspondent for the Guardian, that the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup should have gone to Egypt, and why…

… but surely if the Egyptians could build the pyramids they could host a World Cup.

You know then  Louise!

As with many online articles the comments are 1 000 times better than the article!

Popularity: 8% [?]

Dombeya Wines, Helderberg, Stellenbosch - currently Number one.

Well soccer fans, Spit or Swallow and Blow Me probably sound like you have strayed into a red-light district, but this is a clean blog and these two websites are just tongue in cheek (oops)  names of … let me explain.

Spit or Swallow is an online wine club in the Cape. Members rate wine farms around Cape Town  as well as wine routes. So I would certainly recommend that any soccer fans planning to come over to South Africa for the 2010 World Cup, who are spending some time in the Cape, should take a look at this site – they will get some good information about the top Cape Wine routes and  the best Wine farms to visit.

In line with their risque name, Blow me is a Vuvuzela tribute site – You “blow” a virtual Vuvuzela! Go on try it…

Popularity: 5% [?]