- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
The planet’s biggest single-sport event begins on 11 June and makes 2010 the most important year in South Africa since 1994. Some have even coined the FIFA World Cup as South Africa’s “second miracle”.
It’s also going to be a very important year for Australian football.
To comprehend the potential impact the 2010 FIFA World Cup will have on South Africa, you just have to consider some of the staggering statistical data from the last World Cup, hosted in Germany in 2006:
* There were over 15 million applications for tickets.
* All 64 matches in 2006 were sold out.
* Spectators totalled 3,359,439 – with an additional 18 million fans who couldn’t get tickets gathering at Fan Fests across Germany.
* An average 52,491 spectators attended each match in Germany’s 12 stadiums.
* The 2006 FIFA World Cup™ stands as one of the most watched events in television history.
* It was broadcast to 214 countries on 376 channels with a total cumulative television audience of 26.29 billion (both in-home and at various sporting and social venues).
* If the 2006 TV coverage was shown on just one channel, it would take over eight years to broadcast everything non-stop.
* The FIFAworldcup.com website became the most successful sports events website.
* The website had 4.2 billion page views from 9 June to 9 July (more than double the traffic recorded in 2002).
* When the website went mobile for the first time, there were over 73 million page views on the mobile web portal.
Statistics like these confirm the tournament’s status as the world’s most popular event, and South Africa is pulsating in its preparations to welcome the world.
But what has Sydney got to do with staging the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa in a few months?
Well, Sydney has been selected as one of seven sites worldwide for a official FIFA Fan Fest site during the World Cup finals in South Africa. The other cities selected are London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro as well as all nine host cities in South Africa.
The choice of Sydney as a venue for a FIFA-organised fan park during the 2010 World Cup is a positive sign in Australia’s bid to host the FIFA World Cup in 2018 or 2022.
The choice of Sydney was a boost for the bid with five of the other live site cities – London, Paris, Rome and Berlin – having previously hosted the World Cup final. The FFA don’t want to raise expectations too high but they can only interpret it as a positive sign for the 2018 and 2022 bids.
Fan Fest sites at Germany 2006 proved to be very popular with over 18 million fans who couldn’t get tickets (all games were sold out) watching the games in public arenas and celebrating together at free outdoor live football broadcast venues.
FIFA has extended the Fan Fest concept world wide and Sydney has been chosen to join the planet’s biggest ever football party.
The 2010 World Cup will be the first time the Fan Fest concept has been taken outside the host country and Sydney was selected ahead of many other cities around the world by the FIFA World Cup organising committee, as one of only seven World Cup Fan Fest sites around the globe.
The Sydney site at Darling Harbour is expected to attract 50,000 fans per day and night, with all 64 matches of the tournament to be shown live and replayed on giant screens.
The coverage of the matches will be complimented with pre-match and post match concerts, entertainment and other performances.
The site will also be linked to other live Fan Fest sites across the world for the official broadcast coverage, which will have a cumulative audience for the 64 games of an estimated 30 billion viewers in over 200 countries.
Sony and FIFA are also preparing to show selected 2010 World Cup events in 3D, a first for any sporting event in the world.
Now you can watch live 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa matches in 3D. In announcing an agreement for selected media rights of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, Sony said that up to 25 matches will be produced using Sony’s 3D professional cameras, providing coverage of the sport action that is unprecedented in depth, vividness and excitement to billions of people around the world.
The Sydney Fan Fest world wide exposure will be invaluable to Sydney and Australia as part of our bid to host either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup finals.
Are you the ultimate team manager? Pick your own superstar team and go head to head with other football fans for glory and cash prizes on Draftstars. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.