Roger

I heard that 'at least' 20,000 England supporters would travel to SA for the World Cup. Today's Guardian (London) quotes SA tourist officials predicting 'up to 100,000 England fans could flood into the country next summer'. 42,907 match tickets have already been sold to UK addresses and tickets guaranteeing entry to all England games are already sold out.

More at http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...d-fans-tickets

I was going to post extracts from a very informative article in The Guardian (London) until I noticed that the Mail & Guardian (SA) article mentioned by Cheetah_SA is a word-for-word reprint of the UK article!

joefiro

Wow, tickets for 11 July 2010 final already upwards of £3,000. My 2 Category-1 tickets to the final could basically pay for the whole trip, well almost.

Sagy

Count me in if it is around the Johannesburg/Pretoria area. I'll be there June 20 - July 4 (have tickets to 6 games so far)

thijsseh

Cheetah_SA, I did give fleeting consideration to this (as I will definitely be out of the country at that time ). The problem is exactly the one you mention. And - although I do not want to generalise and there are certainly very nice football supporters around - you only need to look at the crowds in the UK or the Netherlands for instance to see what you might end up with. My place is too nice to have it wrecked, never mind the potential income!

Now I should ask you the same question: in your case the tenants dont even need tickets for every game, if you supply a pair of good binoculars (at a small extra fee of course ), they can watch from 'the comfort of your home' (as they call it) .

AUSMatt

Seeking some local advice.

We have rented a motorhome for our 10 days in SA as we did in Germany 2006. However, I'm not sure we want to be parked at the RV park outside the cities all the time.

For the locals or other frequent SA travelers, do you think we will be able to find secure parking for the RV (perhaps at someone's house) for a small fee. We would prefer to spend 2 - 3 days for example in Pretoria near the stadium instead of out at the RV park...

Cheetah_SA

Darn that glass roof... we can't see into the stadium at all. Actually even without the roof the stadium is too high and straight up to allow any view, even from the top of Signal Hill. The good news, for us, is that it will limit noise pollution. We used to look right into the previous stadium but were also exposed to all the noise - like PA system abuse by amateur announcers at school sports days.

I would have the same qualms about letting our house. Not that it's at all grand - but one does get sentimental about one's own tat. In addition the tenants would have to look after 2 dogs, a cat and a koi pond.

thijsseh

Vuvuzela-proof??

Cheetah_SA

I'd forgotten the new instrument of auditory torture!

@:-) Guess it's time to ferret out all those ear plugs from the airline amenity kits.

Cheetah_SA

Emirates have just published their WC2010 packages including flights, accommodation and match tickets.

Pretty pricey! But it does save a lot of effort trying to put this together as a FIT. Guess it also explains where most of the domestic flights will go: tied up in packages like these.

boar

Decent thread.

I am a regular visitor to RSA & have a Series ticket to follow Paraguay all the way through to the final next year. I am fortunate enough to be in the position to be able to rent a house in one of the best neighbourhoods in Joburg for the entire event. I may have some spare beds for the Group matches. Watch this space!

I am sure many of you are aware that this is the first time Fifa have sold series tickets for teams where refunds aren't involved. i.e in the past a 7 match Paraguay series ticket would only have guaranteed the purchaser tickets to the matches Paraguay actually played. In hindsight this wouldn't have been the most sensible WC to trial this new ticketing policy. As you can imagine there has been unprecedented interest in North Korea 7 match series tickets.

This decision is going to play serious havoc with the transport/accomodation for the event as a very large number of fans - far ,far more than in previous world cups -wont know where they will be going until the conclusion of the Group stages. Unfortunately this is a serious problem in South Africa.

For people planning to visit RSA for at least a fortnight as independent travellers I would strongly suggest renting a house in one of the main hubs for the duration of your stay. It would at least give you a base to work from and then try to plan the internal travel/accomodation once you arrive. I am not sure I would wait until the day to book as there will be thousands of people in the same boat.

Cheetah_SA

One way to solve this problem: just buy one of the packages marketed by airlines and agencies on behalf of MATCH. (See my post on EK packages above.) Of course it will cost a king's ransom, but hey, those execs at FIFA have lifestyles to maintain!

Good advice - if you can afford it. This is an excerpt from our corporate TA's guidelines for business travel during WC2010:

This seems to assume that visitors (220 000 long-haul and 180 000 from Africa are FIFA's estimates) are going to have very deep pockets. Are soccer fanatics generally that well off? Of course corporates will buy heaps of packages for marketing, employee awards etc. But the business climate is not as conducive to this kind of stuff as it was 18 months ago.

boar

I do get the feeling that plenty of fans have gone ahead
& bought tickets without realizing how expensive the accomodation
is going to be. In Germany fans could stay in neighbouring countries
if need be. In Japan there was always cheap accomodation an hour or so away from the stadia.

South African hoteliers/homeowners are seeing this as their once
in a lifetime opportunity to seriously gouge tourists.

Soccer (football) fans are definitely a rung below rugby fans
in terms of disposable income. Having said that the price of the
airfare alone seems to encourage wealthier fans to make the
journey.

The official Fifa Accommodation site is extremely cumbersome.
I do hope it improves by the time of the draw in December.

Roger

Yes. Remember the Beijing Olympics?

Ahead of the games, prices were sky high. Just before the start, there was a glut and loads of rooms were offloaded at more reasonable prices, almost dumping. Part of this was a huge oversupply of new hotels (unlikely in SA) but it also had to do with the market not being willing to pay exorbitant prices.

I can't help thinking that if anybody is prepared to take the risk, it might be an idea to book some expensive cancellable rooms now and then if more reasonable prices turn up, cancel and rebook.

stimpy

I can't help but think it might be best to stay home and watch on TV! Sorry, couldn't resist.

That's my plan unless I get corporate VIP tickets with accommodation. Which is actually quite possible in my case. Got my fingers crossed.

Roger

I'm with you on that one. I'm due to be in SA 3-4 times next year and will do my utmost to avoid the World Cup and just before and just after. Not just the crowds but also the winter.

But after all, the OP was asking about visiting at WC time ...