MUMBAI: The wait is finally over as the world’s most watched sporting spectacle is all set to kick off Friday, and if we are to go by experts’ opinions, all indications are that this edition of the World Cup will be even bigger blockbuster than the last one in 2006 in Germany.
An event of the magnitude and stature of the Fifa World Cup with passionate fan followings in virtually every country, including cricket crazy India, has many tangible and intangible benefits for the stakeholders in the event, apart from the highest level of competitive football that is on display.
With the month-long event kick-starting Friday and reaching its climatic finale on 11 July, SportzPower tried analyzing how the event has benefited various stakeholders like the federations, host nation, broadcasters, brands among others.
Broadcast in every territory
The Fifa World Cup matches will be telecast in virtually every corner of the world with as many as 2.6 billion viewers expected to watch the matches.
Here in India, pan-Asian sports broadcaster ESPN Star Sports will do the live coverage after securing the South Asia broadcast rights for $ 44 million. The coverage will include commentary in both English and Hindi, with officials estimating that 125 million Indians will be watching the event.
According to Nielsen, 80 per cent Indians would follow the live telecast of Fifa World Cup games on television. This survey augurs well for ESS, which had garnered 1.95 TVR and managed a reach of 48 million during the 2006 World Cup.
This is not all: for the first time, some games will be broadcast in 3D, with South Korea’s SBS carrying action in this format along with ESPN in the United States and Sogecable in Spain.
Additionally, the World Cup will also be streamed live online globally on many platforms with Tudou doing the webcast in China. Besides, the International Football Federation has taken special care for people with hearing impairments and will broadcast International Sign video reports on official website Fifa.com.
The 2010 World Cup is expected to bring in a revenue windfall for Fifa with total commercial revenues expected to be $ 3.3 billion, a 48 per cent rise compared to 2006 revenues of $ 2.3 billion, according to sports market news and intelligence provider Sportcal.
The worldwide media rights itself is expected to fetch Fifa $ 2.15 billion, while marketing revenues are expected to be in the range of $1.2 billion. Europe, the study notes, remains the biggest media rights revenue contributor to Fifa with $ 1.2 billion. Hospitality and licensing are expected to bring in another $ 190 million, with hospitality contributing $ 110 million and licensing accounting for $ 80 million.
Earlier this year, Fifa president Sepp Blatter had also indicated that the revenues from 2010 Fifa World Cup will reach an all-time high. Fifa has declared a profit of $ 196 million on revenues of $ 1.059 billion and expenses of $ 863 million for the 2009 fiscal.
Boost to economy and infrastructure
Furthermore, the soccer spectacle is expected to inject about Rand 55 billion into the South African economy as well as create approximately 415,400 jobs in a country with 24.3 per cent unemployment as of December 2009.
The organising committee of the Fifa World Cup has spent more than Rand 20.5 billion for this mega-event.
Five new football stadiums have been constructed and another five stadiums are being upgraded in nine host cities. This is supplemented with major civil engineering projects, improving roads and transport systems and developing the Johannesburg Rapid Transit System. These infrastructure projects have reportedly created around 368, 000.
The South African Government’s contribution to World Cup-related projects is Rand 28 billion. The infrastructure development being done for the World Cup the government believes will be in use well after the tournament as South Africa’s road, air and sporting infrastructure is improved considerably for 2010 and beyond.
The South African Government infused Rand 170 billion into the transport system in the five-year period from 2005/06 to 2009/10, which comprises a dedicated Rand 13.6 billion allocation for the World Cup, which has been allocated to host cities (and the commuter rail agency and roads agency) to improve public transportation systems ahead of the event.
BRT systems, public transport corridors, inter-modal facilities, freeway expansions and road upgrades. ACSA is also spending Rand 19.5 billion on airport upgrades to deal with planned capacity increases during and after the tournament – with South Africa’s airports increasing their passenger capacity substantially in many areas such as parking, check-in facilities and baggage processing.
The World Cup organising committee had also committed to using companies compliant with South Africa’s Black Economic Empowerment legislation and small, medium and micro enterprises. By 30 September 2008, 55 per cent of the organisation’s spend was through BEE companies and 26 per cent through SMMEs.
The major contributions of the South African Government are to:
• Stadium and precinct development: R9.8 billion
• Transport: R13.6 billion
• Broadcast and telecommunications: R300 million
• Event operations: R684 million
• Safety and security: R1.3 billion
• Event volunteer training: R25 million
• Ports of entry infrastructure: R3.5 billion
• Immigration support: R630 million
• Communications, hosting, legacy and culture: R504 million
These figures are national government spends, and exclude the amounts spent by the nine 2010 Fifa World Cup host cities in preparing for the tournament.
Marketing opportunity for brands
The 2010 World Cup is a marketing opportunity second to none, offering an international audience of thousands of visitors and billions of television viewers from across the globe. Very few businesses can afford to inject huge capital investments just for the duration of the month-long event itself and hope to benefit sufficiently from such investments.
A study by Van Communications conducted between 7 and 9 May shows that Coca-Cola, adidas and McDonalds, all three Fifa World Cup sponsors are the most visible brands. Hyundai’s brand recall has increased due to the marketing related activities around Fifa World Cup especially in Europe.
However, Coke took a different approach: more for less. The company said that its extravaganzas on the 2010 WC would be bigger than anything they have done earlier, and yet would be short by $45 mn from what they would have otherwise spent if they did not go for savings.
Celebrity use for branding has also gone up remarkably, with companies signing up former footballers as ambassadors, with Yahoo! Signing-up David Becham.
In India, official broadcaster ESS has signed a host of brands for on-air sponsorships which includes Vodafone, Airtel DTH, Nokia, Samsung, Hero Honda, Parle Agro, Pernod Ricard, Micromax, BPCL (Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd), Coca-Cola and Jhaveri Industries reflecting the stature of the event in a cricket crazy nation.
A host of other brands like adidas, Coca-Cola India and Castrol had also conducted on-ground activations to leverage their association with Fifa World Cup in India. While, Castrol undertook its biggest consumer activation programme in India, Coca-Cola through its sponsorship of grassroot level football tournament Mir Hussain Iqbal Trophy will fly 20 promising football players to South Africa.
Sportswear giants, adidas India has also tied-up with leading English daily Hindustan Times to launch an initiative to identify youngsters, who will be sent to South Africa for one of the matches.
The social media has become an unavoidable vehicle for companies to promote brands. In the build up to the event Visa had launched Visa Match Planner, a social media application that allows users to create customizable, dynamic Fifa World Cup viewing schedules to share with friends via social networking channels such as Facebook.
Ticketing and sports tourism
Fifa is expected to sell 2.88 million tickets through various channels with 96 per cent of the ticket already sold. Ticket sales alone are estimated at R3.2 billion.
Further, the World Cup is expected to boost the global sports tourism industry in general and the South African industry in particular with South Africa’s tourism minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk citing the 2010 Fifa World Cup as the key to return South Africa to its pre-recession tourism high.
van Schalkwyk said construction linked to the World Cup would contribute R50bn to the economy, while tourism would generate a further R15bn, with 3.5 million fans expected to attend the tournament.
A Grant Thornton Report expects around 300,000 overseas and more than 48,000 African visitors to stream into the country for the spectacle, spending R9.3 billion there.
Besides, co-located alongside the final week of the World Cup in South Africa, is the landmark five-day exhibition and conference programme called ‘World Sport Destination Expo’, which aims to showcase the $600 bn a year sports tourism industry at the heart of one of the biggest and most important events that the world will ever stage.
The World Sport Destination will be conducted from 5-9 July at Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg.
South Africa also claims to be the first country in the history of the Fifa World Cup to offer an event visa with 90 day validity. Fifa required 55 000 rooms for the World Cup and, as of September 2009, 40,495 were contracted, 10,274 of which are non-hotel rooms, 30,221 are hotel rooms and 631 through South African National Parks (SANParks).
For the first time, Fifa appointed an official tour operator in the territory of India. The operator has designed packages which start from Rs 133,900 per person on twin-sharing basis and go up to Rs 429,900 per person on twin-sharing basis. From India, the operator is expecting 700-1000 people to travel to South Africa for the World Cup.
The package includes air travel, hospitality and match tickets. The basic amount is for three days and the upper end price is for a week’s stay.
89% say World Cup will leave a legacy
BIGGEST PRIZE IN FOOTBALL: Nelson Mandela hold aloft the Fifa World Cup trophy.
Finally, according to a market research conducted amongst 1,000 South African respondents in all major cities and 2010 Fifa World Cup Host Cities on Fifa’s behalf in May, the public opinion towards the 2010 Fifa World Cup has been overwhelmingly positive and optimism surrounding the national team’s chances remarkably robust.
According to the findings from the fifth installment of a six-wave survey, there was a strong sense of pride in South Africa hosting football’s showcase event (92 per cent), a firm belief it will be a success (86 per cent), as well as an eager anticipation for the competition to begin (86 per cent).
The poll claims that the majority of respondents maintain high expectations in terms of the potential long-term benefits of hosting the Fifa World Cup, both tangible and intangible: 89 per cent believe it will leave a lasting legacy and will be remembered fondly over generations, 80 per cent feel it will unite the people of South Africa, while 93 per cent believe that he images of the country beamed out across the world will lure more tourists in future.
“This is the single greatest opportunity we have ever had to showcase our diversity and potential to the world. We must rise and tell the story of a continent, which is alive with possibilities,” South African President Jacob Zuma had said at the 50-day countdown celebration in April.
In order to leave a long lasting legacy after the tournament, Fifa along with its partners had undertaken a lot of initiatives like Football Turf Programme in the host country, Win in Africa with Africa, Football for Hope, Green Goal Programme, My 2010 School Adventure, and The 2010 FIFA World Cup Ticket Fund.
So there it is. South Africa is ready. It’s kick-off time for the greatest game on earth and the world awaits!
