Socceroos supporters look set to outnumber their German counterparts when the two sides meet for their opening World Cup game in Durban on June 13.
It has been estimated Australia will have over 10,000 supporters travelling to South Africa for the tournament, but the German Football Federation revealed on Tuesday it has sold less than 2,000 tickets so far.
The federation said that only 1,916 tickets have been sold to German fans for their Group D matches against Australia, Serbia and Ghana.
Federation president Theo Zwanziger said a number of factors were behind the poor sales, and that “hotel prices certainly play a role too.”
Security has frequently also been cited as a concern.
“We must use the months until the World Cup to build up confidence,” Zwanziger said.
Federation general secretary Wolfgang Niersbach said the sales were “normal” compared to the 2002 tournament in Japan and South Korea, also an expensive long-haul trip for Germans.
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Davstar said | January 20th 2010 @ 8:42am | Report comment
GREEN AND GOLD ARMY WILL BRING OUT BOYS A 12TH MAN AGAINST THE GERMANS GET US A LAST MINUTE WINNER FROM A CAHILL HEADER!!!! 1-0 AUSTRALIA!!!!!!!!!!
GO SOCCEROOS
ItsCalledFootball said | January 20th 2010 @ 2:15pm | Report comment
When we team up with the Brits we’ll outnumber the Jerries two to one . . . but please don’t mention the war.
Australian Football said | January 20th 2010 @ 4:09pm | Report comment
Ha, ha, ha, oh yes please don’t mention the war Faulty…
Rellum said | January 20th 2010 @ 10:37am | Report comment
I have recently finished booking all the accommodation for me and the loved one. One place we were looking at normally charges 200ZAR a night, but for the world cup they were charging 2000ZAR. Crazy price hikes.
Another place we did book email us saying they forgot to charge us the correct price and now it would cost twice us much. As usual there are a lot of people trying to rip off the tourists.
Michael C said | January 20th 2010 @ 10:52am | Report comment
When I saw this article – it raised alarm bells on a specific front.
When people have spoken of the massive tourism boon that a potential Aust FIFA WC hosting would bring, and compared the costs vs returns of Germany 2006. Well, it looks a little flimsy when only 2000 Germans (assuming 1 person per ticket – but, reality will be less) appear willing to head to RSA.
Australia (Sydney) suffered from a lack of international tourists for the 2000 Olympics. Both during and following. Granted security concerns in RSA would discourage some. However, the question is – at what point will the 1000s of Euro soccer fans who might head to Australia be discouraged by cost, time, distance, and just prefer staying home with their mates and watching it on their giant wall mounted 4m wide 3D HD 12.1 5th generation Wii compatible TV/home entertainment unit??
Simmo said | January 20th 2010 @ 11:46am | Report comment
The real concern is Australia’s hotel capacity, not that there won’t be enough fans!
Recall the number of English rugby fans in 2003. Look at the size of visiting Barmy Army and Lions fans for their respective visits to Oz. Now apply those principles, if not the exact numbers, through the footballing world.
If you scan through the football forums around the world everyone is talking safety. It’s precisely the reason I’m not going and I have the time and money. Germany was fine and I went. But SA is a different kettle of fish altogether.
It can’t be underestimated how many people are staying home because SA is a dangerous s-hole.
Mushi said | January 20th 2010 @ 1:52pm | Report comment
You want to extrapolate the results for a sport followed predominantly by the affluent, from one of the most affluent countries, who have cultural ties and a history of holidaying in Australia and apply it to a mix of countries who don’t meet that criteria for a sport that is followed by the masses?
Simmo said | January 20th 2010 @ 2:45pm | Report comment
Do you reckon we’d get lower visitor numbers than Japan/Korea 2002?
pimbo said | January 20th 2010 @ 3:07pm | Report comment
Simmo,
we had over a million visitors from the rest of Australia and abroad in Sydney for the Olympics and it was no problem at all and that was one city.
Rellum said | January 20th 2010 @ 4:07pm | Report comment
Why can’t all those Aussies think like Micheal C and Simmo, then I wouldn’t have to spend months and countless ballots desperately hoping to get one ticket to one game.
Punter said | January 20th 2010 @ 12:17pm | Report comment
That will the least of our worry.
ItsCalledFootball said | January 20th 2010 @ 2:20pm | Report comment
Reason Number 124 for not holding a FIFA World Cup in Australia: Its too far to travel and the tourists won’t come.
Unlike AFL, football is played in more than one country and wherever its held in the world people will travel.
Australia aready has the greatest number of tourists per capita of any country in the world, even without a World Cup here, so I don’t think this is a serious concern that “should raise alarm bells”.
Mick said | January 20th 2010 @ 2:18pm | Report comment
The aussie fans showing the passion,
10,000 spending weeks in if you believe the media, crime filled, grotty 3rd world country, these people are dedicated
Big Kev said | January 21st 2010 @ 9:34am | Report comment
Dude, as an ex South African but firm Aussie for over 25 years, I will tell you that South Africa is a fantastic destination and gets over 7 million tourists a year with Germany being the 2nd biggest European source market with over 150k visitors last year – so I find it extremely unlikely that only 2k will attend their group games.
A couple of possible options;
1. perhaps like all my friends most Germans bought tickets in the lottery and not through the German federation
2. perhaps as Germany are in their supporters minds guaranteed to make it through to the 2nd round and beyond, most Germans are planning to attend the knock out stages unlike most Aussies who are only going for the group stage??
3. over 100,000 German passport holders live in South Africa so of course they would have applied for tickets as South African residents. Even more reside in the rest of Africa and again would not be applying through the German federation.
Yes there is crime in South Africa but it is really only limited to certain areas and World Cup visitors especially in Cape Town and Durban will have an unbelievable world class experience, believe me!
Mick said | January 20th 2010 @ 2:25pm | Report comment
If people belived australia was too far they would never have started any of these backpacker business,
rojack said | January 20th 2010 @ 3:30pm | Report comment
If we do win the bid, most of the tourist will come from Asia. Asians are not big Olympic fans but they are big football fans. They will travel to Aust. I also expect Asians to be lot richer in 2018/2020. The games would be played across the country, so we will have more capacity to absorb more tourist. There will be more flights in and out of Aust and they will be cheaper in 2018/2020. So we can easily double/triple/quadriple the likely tourist compare to Sydney Olympic.
AJ said | January 20th 2010 @ 4:30pm | Report comment
Asian countries may well be richer, but I would guess your everyday man on the street wont neccersarily be any more well off then he his today. sorry but I am naturally sceptical about everything, though I would love to see the SWC on our shores I doubt our ability to pull it off- that is for another day however, this thread is about Australians going to SA for the SWC in great numbers- to me this is hardly surprising, as a country we are wealthy (with a lot of individual wealth as well), we escaped the recession for the most part undamaged. Further to this, we are without doubt sports loving, festival loving, travel loving people.
Towser said | January 20th 2010 @ 3:53pm | Report comment
Statistics show about 5.6 million tourists to Australia & 6.7 million to South Africa(see below). Given it is close to Europe & despite the crime rate is considered safer than the rest of Africa, no suprise. Only Egypt for obvious reasons surpasses it on the continent.
So they expect 2.7 million football fans,we should match that, its irrelevant where they come from.Anybody travelling to Australia can usually afford it & they do spend money & stay for a while to check out the tourist destinations.
IN 2008(from article below) Tourists spent 16 billion. I’m no mathematical genius but if we get approximately the same number of football fans as South Africa say 2.5 million, who will stay here as long as the average visitor, this is then 45% of the normal yearly total. They spend 16 billion. 45% of 16 billion is approximately 7 billion. Seems a good return for a month or so of visitors in comparison to the yearly total of 16 billion. This is not of course considering inflation bumping it up in the future.
But theres always the chance we may not get it,or Subprime Fanny Mae big bank Chinatown inflated sex doll that whistles in the breeze maker “Blow me up slowly” company, located in a call centre somewhere in downtown Mumbai has taken over the world & stadiums worldwide are converted to blow up sex doll factories.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6989872.stm
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:-t4FgbTFkZwJ:www.tourism.australia.com/content/News%2520Centre/media_releases_2008/Australia/NR%2520New%2520figures%2520confirm%2520international%2520visitors%2520spending%2520more.pdf+australia+tourist+visitors+per+year&hl=en&gl=au&sig=AHIEtbShqO0A8Kcb-K5QKd_1BpMukRPtgQ
Michael C said | January 20th 2010 @ 4:01pm | Report comment
the dilemma of course if it amounts to little more than a redistribution of the annual tourism numbers to a stunning peak and a flattening out the rest of the year.
That, all too often becomes the case. The net gain over the full year is less – but, the propagandists try to portray the months results as a stand alone figure rather than in the broader context.
True Tah said | January 20th 2010 @ 4:11pm | Report comment
Towser
South Africa might be safer than places like Angola or Mozambique, but it it not safer than places like Namibia and Zimbabwe.
I always figured that the prices would skyrocket with the FIFA WC, if a futbol fan had really wanted to go to South Africa because of the country itself, then they would have gone already.
I sort of feel sorry because many of my futbol-loving colleagues have asked me what to expect in South Africa, the first thing I said is that it is dollarwise, not many places compare…now they’re be asked to pay many times the price what I told them to expect!!
Towser said | January 20th 2010 @ 4:32pm | Report comment
True Tah
Always an opening to capitalise on big events. Shame but a reality of human nature.
jimbo said | January 20th 2010 @ 4:59pm | Report comment
Blow up sex dolls should present a bit of an opening.