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The world (well, nearly every part of the world save the U.S.) is gearing up for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. This year’s host, South Africa, has the honor of being the first African nation to hold the tournament. And it is not taking the responsibility lightly — which is wise, since hosting the world’s largest sporting event (it’s arguably larger than the Olympics) has the capacity to elevate a nation on multiple levels, from increased tourism to job creation to international prestige.
As such, South Africa has wasted no time beefing up its infrastructure to accommodate the estimated 350,000 international visitors, not to mention several thousand media members and several billion TV viewers, that will be attending and/or watching the games. Following the 2006 World Cup in Germany, many whispered that hosting the 2010 Cup would cost South African $821 million, 25% more than the 2006 hosts spent. To date, the South African government has spent $660 million building and renovating 10 separate stadiums, plus $680 million on airport upgrades and $460 million on road and rail improvements (including the high-speed rail network from Johannesburg, Pretoria and Johannesburg International Airport). In addition, 30 additional hotels have been built in Johannesburg alone. Officials in Cape Town built a new electrical substation to ensure that the city’s stadium and surrounding areas would receive sufficient power.
Granted, the incentives for spending this much are considerable: The World Cup will likely pump around $2 billion into South Africa’s economy, generating just under $1 billion in directing spending and creating an estimated 159,000 new jobs. The tournament also attracts plenty of international investors, whose influx of cash could benefit the country for years to come.
Image: MENA Infrastructure
June 7th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
What happens when the sporting events end? Greece?
June 7th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
Yeah, wait, spending billions of dollars on a sporting event seems like one of the *least* sound investments a country can make these days.
More importantly, did SA even have this money in the first place?
June 7th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Another good question, can the poor access the transportation infrastructure? My understanding is no, that it is poorly sited and too expensive.
June 8th, 2010 at 2:39 am
What happens when the sporting event ends? Well, the population gets to take advantage of all the major infrastructure updates. It’s not like the high speed rail, BRT, airport etc only last a month.
As for the stadiums, soccer is pretty popular in SA, and we’re not talking about a bunch of Cowboys stadiums, most are in the range of 50,000. Also, rugby, very popular, can use the stadiums too.
June 8th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
The problem is not in the use of the newly gained infrastructure. The problem comes with maintaining said infrastructure. My homeland has a stellar record of letting everything go to shit, Telkom and Eskom being prime examples. It’s unfortunate but its a fact. I love that we got it and I love that there has been some positive spending from the government. They still have a huge amount of work to do to get the country back from 15 years of regression.
Rugby is by far more popular with the Super 14 tournament and the Currie Cup. Also the National Team is a 2 - time World Champion. If it werent for the infrastructure and stadiums provided by Rugby, South Africa would not have had the stepping stone to impress FIFA with. When FIFA toured the country before electing it they went to 6 Rugby Stadiums because the soccer stadiums were terrible. There are 4 Rugby stadiums that will be used for during the World Cup after the tournament the Rugby teams will remain playing in their respective stadiums and maybe have a tournament final in a new soccer stadium.
The GAUTRAIN is not High speed it travels up to 100 mph. It did have 11 000 riders on its first day though. As for access for the poor, the station at Marlborough is right next to a township which the government is trying to spruce up. So for the time being the poor will be able to look at the train, maybe attempt to train surf a bit as for affording a ticket, maybe one per month.
June 11th, 2010 at 11:45 am
[...] congested roads at speeds of up to 100mph. The high speed rail system is just one of the several projects in which billions of dollars have been invested to improve transportation for the global soccer [...]
June 13th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
[...] Infrastructure: Jarrett Walker takes a look at some of the transit improvements for South Africa, building off the notion that large scale events like the World Cup can provide a kind of focus for infrastructure investments and other benefits that will last well after the conclusion of the games. Infrastructurist looks at the stadiums. [...]
June 18th, 2010 at 6:53 am
Enjoying reading your articles. Perhaps unrelated but read an interesting bit of trivia, were you aware that 6,352 football players have so far featured in WorldCup teams, a quarter (1,545) of whom actually never were on the field.