It’s going to be a race to the finish to get South Africa’s World Cup fan parks ready by June, with only two out of nine municipalities having awarded tenders for their parks.
The Mail & Guardian understands that only Johannesburg and Cape Town have awarded the tenders for their parks, officially dubbed the Fifa fan fests.
The fan parks are expected to run for 31 days and besides showing all of the World Cup fixtures on big screens, they will offer fans a full day’s entertainment, including music, performance art and comedy.
Bloemfontein has announced its preferred bidder, but the municipality insists that no contract has been signed and that negotiations are ongoing.
The other municipalities’ tenders are set to close during February, with adjudication and the announcement of the preferred bidders expected to be concluded by the beginning of March.
This will leave successful bidders about three months to complete the preparation, planning and implementation of the project.
Oppikoppi Productions’ Carel Hoffman said his company was tentatively involved in early discussions around the fan park tenders but that it looked “very muddy and uncommitted”.
“The fan parks are way behind schedule,” said Hoffman. “There are tenders out only now for many of them. It seems way too late.”
Not only will South Africa have to organise official Fifa fan fests, but also a number of public viewing areas where fans can gather on big match days to watch the World Cup.
On top of this, Fifa has decided to host a further seven international fan fests in London, Paris, Berlin, Rome, Sydney, Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro.
Attempts to get comment from Fifa were unsuccessful at the time of going to print.
Johannesburg
With two World Cup stadiums, Johannesburg will be hosting two Fifa fan fests. The first will be held at Elkah Stadium, a series of cricket and football pitches in the heart of Soweto, 8km from Soccer City. The second will be held at Innesfree Farm in Sandton, which is close to Alexandra and 15km from Ellis Park.
Megapro chief executive David Jenkins, who is involved in signing up sponsors for Johannesburg’s fan fests, said the market response had been good.
“This is a big opportunity for South African sponsors to be involved with the Fifa World Cup,” he said. “It will give local sponsors who don’t have big budgets the opportunity to rub shoulders with the official sponsors.”
Cape Town
Cape Town’s fan fest is planned for the Grand Parade, in the middle of the city’s central business district and 2.6km from the Green Point stadium. The city also plans to have a 2km fan walk from the CBD to the stadium for its eight fixtures.
On top of this, the city will set up four public viewing areas at the Bellville Velodrome, Khayelitsha’s Oliver Tambo Centre, the Athlone Civic Centre and the Swartklip sports complex in Mitchell’s Plain.
Cape Town’s project coordinator, Shameel Ho-Kim, said the city had already awarded its tender for the fan park to a consortium that includes World Sport, VWV and Grand Parade Investments. Ho-Kim said the Long Street celebrations for the World Cup draw showed that there was interest in live performances and the city was planning a host of entertainment for fans.
Pretoria
Plans for Pretoria’s fan fest were thrown into disarray when the national government refused to allow the Union Buildings to be used as the site, because of security concerns. The M&G understands that the Tshwane mayoral committee had already signed off the use of the Union Buildings and had received approval from Fifa when the national government voiced its objections.
“The City of Tshwane is on track for the delivery of the Fifa fan fest despite the fact that the decision on the venue has not been finalised,” said Julie Wells, the communications manager for Tshwane’s World Cup programme. “The tender for the appointment of the service provider closes on February 9 and there has been an excellent response by event management consortiums.”
The city has organised the sites of its two additional public viewing areas. Screens will be erected at Temba Sports Ground in Hammanskraal and Giant Stadium in Soshanguve.
Durban
Durban has taken advantage of its popular beaches, known as the Golden Mile, to turn its fan fest into a fan “mile” that runs along New Beach, a kilometre from the Moses Mabhida stadium.
The eThekwini municipality issued its tender document only last week and the tender closes on February 1. It includes the organisation of the fan mile as well as a beach festival and public viewing areas in the townships of Umlazi and KwaMashu. The fan mile and the beach festival together are expected to host almost 100 000 people on the busiest days of the World Cup.
The municipality is expected to announce the awarding of the tender on February 12.
The head of eThekwini’s 2010 programme, Julie-May Ellingson, said: “Where else in the world can you be sitting on a beach and watch your favourite team play on a big screen and perhaps even take a dip in the warm Indian Ocean at half-time?”
Ellingson said that the city felt that the time allowed for the consortium to get the fan fest ready was sufficient, although she admitted it was “tighter than perhaps we would have liked”.
Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein’s fan fest is to be hosted at the Mangaung Sports Centre in the township of Rocklands, 15km from the Free State stadium.
The City of Mangaung’s World Cup programme head, George Mohlakoana, said the fan park’s location was in the township in order to be closer to the typical football supporters of Bloemfontein.
The M&G understands that Sail has been announced as the preferred bidder for the Mangaung fan park, but Mohlakoana refused to comment, insisting that no contract had been signed yet and that those negotiations were ongoing.
Sail’s head of brands, Sylvia Brummer, told the M&G that Mohlakoana, whom she referred to as ‘our client”, had refused to allow Sail to speak to the media. Brummer did confirm that Sail has tendered for the Cape Town and Polokwane fan fests as well.