About
2010 Fifa World Cup South Africa
South Africa regularly hosts major international sporting events, and since 1994 has successfully managed some of the biggest - including the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the 2003 Cricket World Cup, the Women’s World Cup of Golf in 2005 and 2006.
But the Football World Cup, the world’s biggest sporting event after the Olympic games - in terms of television audience, bigger than the Olympics - is in a class of its own.
For four weeks in 2010, South Africa will be the centre of the world. The 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan was the most extensively covered and viewed event in television history. Germany 2006, and South Africa 2010, promise to draw even bigger audiences.
The eyes of billions of television viewers, an estimated three million international visitors and the cream of the world’s sporting media will be focused on the southern tip of Africa.
In 2010, football fans will enjoy the benefits of a host of multibillion-rand infrastructure projects currently in progress.
Between now and 2010, South Africa will spend in the region of R5-billion on building and renovating 10 World Cup stadiums, R5.2-billion on upgrades to the country’s airports, and R3.5-billion on improvements to the country’s road and rail network.
Ten stadiums
Five of South Africa’s football stadiums will undergo major renovations for 2010: Soccer City and Ellis Park in Johannesburg, Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria, the Royal Bafokeng stadium in Rustenburg in North West province, and Vodacom Park in Bloemfontein in the Free State.
New stadiums will be built at Mbombela in Mpumalanga and in the Nelson Mandela Metro (encompassing Port Elizabeth) in the Eastern Cape.
Peter Mokaba stadium in Polokwane in Limpopo will be rebuilt, as will Kings Park stadium in Durban and Cape Town’s Green Point stadium. Kings Park and Green Point stadium will become completely new multi-sport facilities, Green Point complete with a retractable dome to protect fans and players from the Cape’s unpredictable winter weather.
