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A senior FIFA official has denied African soccer fans are being priced out of the World Cup in South Africa. “It will be a real African World Cup,” Jerome Valcke told the BBC. Most stadiums would be sold out, he added. However, fans in the African countries that have qualified for the tournament say tickets are being sold on the internet, to which they have limited access. Furthermore, even if they could afford tickets, few African fans have credit cards, needed for online purchases. Marco Werman talks with The World’s soccer aficionado William Troop about the dilemma.
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[BEGIN AUDIO]
MARCO WERMAN: Africa hosts one of the world’s top sporting event this year. The soccer World Cup kicks off in South Africa in exactly 100 days. Teams from 32 countries including the U.S. are taking part. Thousands of fans from around the globe will be there. Not everything is ready for them in South Africa, but today organizers reassured teams and fans alike that all World Cup venues will be ready in time for the first match on June 11th. They also announced that most of the tickets for the tournament’s 64 matches have already been sold and after South Africa, the U.S. is the country with the most World Cup tickets bought. The World’s William Troop has been looking at the numbers. William, who is buying the tickets?
WILLIAM TROOP: Well first of all the vast majority of the tickets that have been sold have gone to South Africans. About a million tickets have been snapped up inside the country that will host the World Cup, but outside of South Africa, the U.S. is by far the country where most of the tickets have been bought. It appears it’s probably something of a mixed bag. There are probably a lot of soccer fans who are snatching up tickets, American soccer fans, because the U.S. is expected to do well at the tournament, but also, I think, South Africa is a nice destination for Americans looking for a place to go.
WERMAN: So these aren’t the usual hard-core sports fans going to this year’s World Cup?
TROOP: Well I’m sure there are some hard-core sports fans in there but I think this kind of event also is appealing to the kind of people how might be interested in going to Africa for the first time and haven’t gone yet and they want to go somewhere where they feel they can catch a soccer game and also catch a safari. The BBC spoke to a travel agent, a South African living here in the U.S. who has been selling some tickets and let’s hear what he told the BBC.
TERRY VONGUILLAUME: Anyone who wants to go to the World Cup, realistically, needs to be able to afford I would say $4,000.00 and that covers your flight, ten days in South Africa, whether it’s Johannesburg, Capetown, going on safari plus tickets to two games. Between $4,000.00 and $5,000.00 is what you need.
TROOP: That’s Terry VonGuillaume, the South African travel agent here in the U.S. I think he’s actually understating it a little bit. I’ve seen some packages for about $7,000.00, $8,000.00 for just one ticket which happens to be the final to the World Cup, but it’s still a pretty pricey endeavor.
WERMAN: Now for South Africans, the biggest block of ticket buyers for the World Cup, as you say, their tickets are heavily underwritten by the organizers of the tournament. But for U.S. ticket buyer what’s the average cost to see one match, for example?
TROOP: Well it’s pretty comparable to a major sporting event over here like say, the Olympic hockey final just last weekend, the U.S. against Canada. That happened to cost somewhere between $300.00 and $700.00 to attend that match in Vancouver. For the World Cup final, if you want to see a match like that you’re talking about spending somewhere between $400.00 and $900.00 for the ticket alone, let alone getting yourself to South Africa as we just heard. If you are South African, there is a whole category of tickets reserved for South Africans only and they start at about $20.00.
WERMAN: Right, so pretty good deal for South Africans. What about if you’re African but not from South Africa?
TROOP: Soccer fans in other parts of Africa are not snatching up tickets for this World Cup. The BBC spoke to some African soccer fans in Cameroon and Nigeria and they said some interesting things. Let’s take a listen.
MALE VOICE 1: To sell tickets online is very unrealistic. We don’t even have access to the internet. Checking our mail here is a very difficult thing.
MALE VOICE 2: They are very expensive for even the richest Africans you can think of. I doubt how many people even have credit cards in Cameroon that they could use to buy their tickets online.
TROOP: You know, it may be that as we get closer to the event the organizers make more tickets available at a cheaper price range. In the end, this is going to be something that is probably too expensive for most Africans to attend in person, so they’ll be watching on TV probably.
WERMAN: The World’s William Troop, thanks for the update.
TROOP: You’re welcome.
WERMAN: This is PRI.
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