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It seems they don’t know about a report from the South African government in November 2005 that warned, ‘Air capacity needs to be addressed to provide access to World Cup travelers.’ It hasn’t been. Seats are scarce, scarcity drives up prices and fans are being milked again.
There may be trouble in store. On Friday the South African Government launched an investigation into allegations that some airlines colluded to keep prices high.
FIFA were bullish last week about their sales, claiming that the Semis and the Final are ‘oversubscribed.’ This surprised a travel agent in Europe. ‘It’s always been taken for granted that the final game is always sold out,’ they told me. ‘Not true. We have been offered as many as we want for the final at Soccer City. They were expensive but the guy has to unload them.’
There are thousands more seats still available at the Final if you have lots of money. That was revealed in a secret report earlier this month, drafted by the Byrom brothers who as well as controlling the sale of tickets, have been awarded the monopoly by President Blatter on those expensive hospitality packages for corporations that like to jaunt to the World Cup with staff and customers.
The company is called MATCH and the Byroms’ business partner is Sepp Blatter’s nephew Philippe. In a bygone age, before the banks were rescued with our taxes, it wasn’t hard to sell luxury ‘experiences’ in those glass-walled boxes at the top of the stadium.
Unfortunately for the Byroms and Blatter jnr, many corporations are staying home this year. In their secret report MATCH revealed that they have only sold an astonishing 61% of their B Skyboxes for the Final – leaving more than 2,000 seats begging to be bought.
Sales are equally disappointing at most other games. The Semi in Durban has 965 seats in the B Suites available. At most venues there’s between 60-100% seats still for sale. According to their confidential figures, they have more than 115,000 seats available.
Jaime, Enrique and Philippe have devised a new ‘Sales Strategy.’
• ‘Chase again companies who previously rejected the offer, experience shows that in many cases things change as the World Cup approaches and people realize that they have to take part.’
• ‘Widen your traditional target group to small and medium sized companies.’
• Target high net worth individuals (over 10% of international sales) including individual members of companies’ top management.
• Target football family: players‘ families, player agents, club shareholders, etc.
Many businessmen would prefer to base themselves in Cape Town – they think it is safer – and commute to games. But MATCH’s schedules are daunting.
To watch a game at Johannesburg’s Soccer City they must leave their hotel at 10.30, spend an hour in a bus and then 90 minutes checking in for their two-hour flight. In Johannesburg they spend an hour at the airport before a 90 minute bus ride to the venue.
They get three hours of hospitality, watch the game, enjoy another 30 minutes winding down, then repeat the journey, getting to bed back in Cape Town at 5.30 in the morning.
Some stadiums could still have empty boxes on match days – but we may never see them. The television pictures of all games are supplied to the world’s networks by one company. Sepp Blatter gave this splendid piece of business to nephew Philippe Blatter and his Swiss-based Infront company who may prefer not to televise any failures by his MATCH company.
Free State 6,183 Durban 13,508 Ellis Park 28,046
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Green Point 7,557 Loftus Versfeld 11,145 Mbombela 7,491
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Nelson Mandela 10,225 Polokwane 1,257 Rustenburg 537
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