Impact of FIFA World Cup 2010 on South Africa
FIFA World Cup that was held in South Africa is one of the non-North American projects funded in the arena of a consortium of private and public organizations. It is the largest mega-event that attracted a lot of private investors, which partnered with government agencies and enterprises to see the success of occurrence. The consortium consisted of Sail Group in South Africa and a Stade de France was given the service contract to operate the 2010 FIFA World Cup Stadium in South Africa ensured that the stadium remained sustainable and could handle multi-purpose activities. The Bid Adjudication Committee of Cape Town City gave the go-ahead of the service contractor to take over the operations of the Green Point Stadium to the Stade de France and SAIL Group of South Africa consortium.
The nature of the consortium was business venture investments. The award of service management approved that the consortium was involved with the management of the stadium from January 2009. The municipality of the city paid the consortium to carry out the management of the stadium from that time and during the World Cup event. After, the consortium would lease the stadium for a period of 10 to 30 years as one of 68,000 seats. The city, therefore, received earnings of 30 percent before taxation through a fixed percentage basis. When the lease was approved, the returns to the city rose significantly. After World Cup, the stadium was reduced to holding several 55,000 people. This enabled the stadium to cater to various types of activities which included music concerts, rugby, and other events involving the presence of many people. The stadium has hospitality suites, training, medical, banqueting, and conferencing facilities. The role of the consortium is operating and managing the structure, and maintaining the areas defined and surrounding the urban park and precinct sports on the Green Point Stadium on the 85 hectares. The agency of brand experience, Jack Morton Worldwide, had a leading role of producing and consultancy in technical operations to the consortium of producing the World Cup in South Africa in the year 2010 of the opening and closing ceremony of the event. Cape Town City, in partnership with CHEC, the Cape Higher Education Consortium, launched the 2010 World Cup. The consortium plays an increasingly significant role in hosting the international event that is important to the assessment of the socio-economic impacts in South Africa. The launch formed a workshop that would be used to share knowledge during the research into sport and the 2010 World Cup.
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With this mega event, the economic effects of the consortium came along in South Africa. The organizations that partnered, both private and public ones, to see this event go into a success, resulted in promoting economic growth and stimulating the redevelopment of the urban areas as a result of increased tourism, improvement of the infrastructure, and short-term employment. The number of tourists was estimated to be between 330,000 and 450,000 during the period of the World Cup in South Africa.
The coming together of many organizations in this important event also generated vigorous debates within the country about the post-event usage and sustainability of the related infrastructure and the great intangible and measurable outcomes and benefits (Stonehouse, Campbell, Hamill, & Purdie, 2004). The case involved a lot of political leadership that led to strategies, spending priorities, and policies by the host country's government. The 2010 FIFA World Cup acted as a marketing opportunity to show South Africa and Africa at large to the world. With over 200 countries watching, the event that was successfully held under the management and sponsorship of various international organizations resulted in the improvement of the country's image on the international level; hence facilitating the pride and identity and the reduced Afro-pessimism.
Football, especially the World Cups, profits FIFA enormously. Officials of the event provided entertainment, and the host country and cities ensured the necessary facilities and infrastructure. The costs of FIFA are paid by the television broadcasting rights which are funded by its corporate partners and the marketing rights. It is noted that FIFA stands out to make the greatest profits from the international football tournament in South Africa. The South African World Cup was estimated to have generated the greatest revenues as compared to any other FIFA event (Menezes, 2007).
The events that called for many organizations working together as a consortium required huge infrastructure and development projects. This reflected a global increase in magnitude and the frequency of mega projects during that time. Megaprojects since then became central to infrastructural development, which was funded by the financial combination of the national government, the international organizations, and privatized capital. The most pronounced projects during that period are the numerous investments in infrastructural projects. The mega event came along with conflicts of interest which can be defined as the situation where a public official has a private interest that could influence a public decision. Such a large construction of projects is vulnerable to situations of various conflicts of interest and corruption. The partnering private organizations and government agencies invested in logistics greatly, infrastructure and security to make sure that the World Cup 2010 was successful. The arrangements of funding were complex and problematic for very many reasons (Madichie, 2012).
