Cape Town - Fan parks near stadiums are to provide business opportunities for local entrepreneurs, in host cities for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa.
The parks, pioneered in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, will allow fans who do not have tickets to enjoy the spirit of the games, by watching all the action on high definition big screen televisions, at secure venues.
Cape Town business owners met with Mayor Helen Zille to discuss their concerns about access to the business opportunities which will be presented by the various fan parks.
Ms Zille held a workshop for the various business leaders who had earlier expressed concern that they did not have enough information regarding access to business opportunities surrounding the fan parks.
The workshop highlighted how best local and small businesses can gain maximum exposure to opportunities emanating from the world cup.
The mayor pointed out that the city needed to deliver a world class event, which would create future investment opportunities and raise the profile of Cape Town as a city capable of organising world class events.
CEO of Accelerate Cape Town, Guy Lundy said: "To date business and government have not worked very closely on ensuring that we maximise the opportunities presented by the world cup, and business has not been engaged with it because of lack of knowledge."
He said once businesses become engaged with the event, they will hopefully begin to spread the positive messages about the world cup rather than the consistently negative ones.
Mr Lundy added that Cape Town must use the world cup as an opportunity to show the world that the city can be a global hub of innovation and creativity, and that business was essential in making this happen.
The City of Cape Town's world cup representatives stated that the final guidelines on the exact nature of the fan parks, as well as issues around branding and sponsorship of the non-FIFA fan parks still had to be negotiated and agreed on with FIFA.
Mike Marsden from the City of Cape Town highlighted the fact that all the host cities have expressed concerns about the stringent nature of FIFA's proposed guidelines, which would make it difficult for local businesses to benefit.
Mr Marsden said that the final FIFA guidelines were expected early next year and host cities were already engaging with each other on how to put across a collective position that would benefit local businesses.
CEO of the Cape Town Partnership and an Accelerate Cape Town board member Andrew Boraine stated that the focus needed to go beyond the fan parks.
Businesses must also look at opportunities in the run up to the world cup, non-match day activities, exhibitions and displays not necessarily linked to the event, and opportunities within local environments such as pubs and restaurants, said Mr Boraine.
At the workshop the city also announced that Cape Town has agreed to host the final draw for the World Cup in December 2009, subject to the signing of final agreements with FIFA.
The meeting concluded with an agreement that Accelerate Cape Town, an organisation which aims to bring together key stakeholders to help accelerate the growth and competitiveness of the region, and the City of Cape Town would host further discussions in 2008 to finalise talks on maximising opportunities for local businesses.
Deputy Finance Minister Jabu Moleketi, speaking in November about government's state of readiness ahead of the world cup, said official fan parks are organised under the auspices of FIFA and South Africa has agreed that each host city must have at least one fan park.
"The fan parks we have here will be very similar to those seen in Germany [during the 2006 World Cup], and will be branded by the partners of FIFA and secured by our own security services because it is one of the areas that will cater to the broad amount of supporters in the tournament.
"To give you the figures, there were more people in the fan parks in Germany, almost six times more, than the actual people in the stadiums. This gives you an idea of the scale of importance of these fan parks," he said.
According to the city, the fan parks will be divided into three sectors.
These are, the official FIFA fan park at the Grand Parade and the fan mile, the fan parks at the Bellville Velodrome, Phillipi Stadium and Athlone Stadium and the four smaller community viewing sites at Atlantis, Khayelitsha, Nomzamo and Maynardville.
The parks, pioneered in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, will allow fans who do not have tickets to enjoy the spirit of the games, by watching all the action on high definition big screen televisions, at secure venues.
Cape Town business owners met with Mayor Helen Zille to discuss their concerns about access to the business opportunities which will be presented by the various fan parks.
Ms Zille held a workshop for the various business leaders who had earlier expressed concern that they did not have enough information regarding access to business opportunities surrounding the fan parks.
The workshop highlighted how best local and small businesses can gain maximum exposure to opportunities emanating from the world cup.
The mayor pointed out that the city needed to deliver a world class event, which would create future investment opportunities and raise the profile of Cape Town as a city capable of organising world class events.
CEO of Accelerate Cape Town, Guy Lundy said: "To date business and government have not worked very closely on ensuring that we maximise the opportunities presented by the world cup, and business has not been engaged with it because of lack of knowledge."
He said once businesses become engaged with the event, they will hopefully begin to spread the positive messages about the world cup rather than the consistently negative ones.
Mr Lundy added that Cape Town must use the world cup as an opportunity to show the world that the city can be a global hub of innovation and creativity, and that business was essential in making this happen.
The City of Cape Town's world cup representatives stated that the final guidelines on the exact nature of the fan parks, as well as issues around branding and sponsorship of the non-FIFA fan parks still had to be negotiated and agreed on with FIFA.
Mike Marsden from the City of Cape Town highlighted the fact that all the host cities have expressed concerns about the stringent nature of FIFA's proposed guidelines, which would make it difficult for local businesses to benefit.
Mr Marsden said that the final FIFA guidelines were expected early next year and host cities were already engaging with each other on how to put across a collective position that would benefit local businesses.
CEO of the Cape Town Partnership and an Accelerate Cape Town board member Andrew Boraine stated that the focus needed to go beyond the fan parks.
Businesses must also look at opportunities in the run up to the world cup, non-match day activities, exhibitions and displays not necessarily linked to the event, and opportunities within local environments such as pubs and restaurants, said Mr Boraine.
At the workshop the city also announced that Cape Town has agreed to host the final draw for the World Cup in December 2009, subject to the signing of final agreements with FIFA.
The meeting concluded with an agreement that Accelerate Cape Town, an organisation which aims to bring together key stakeholders to help accelerate the growth and competitiveness of the region, and the City of Cape Town would host further discussions in 2008 to finalise talks on maximising opportunities for local businesses.
Deputy Finance Minister Jabu Moleketi, speaking in November about government's state of readiness ahead of the world cup, said official fan parks are organised under the auspices of FIFA and South Africa has agreed that each host city must have at least one fan park.
"The fan parks we have here will be very similar to those seen in Germany [during the 2006 World Cup], and will be branded by the partners of FIFA and secured by our own security services because it is one of the areas that will cater to the broad amount of supporters in the tournament.
"To give you the figures, there were more people in the fan parks in Germany, almost six times more, than the actual people in the stadiums. This gives you an idea of the scale of importance of these fan parks," he said.
According to the city, the fan parks will be divided into three sectors.
These are, the official FIFA fan park at the Grand Parade and the fan mile, the fan parks at the Bellville Velodrome, Phillipi Stadium and Athlone Stadium and the four smaller community viewing sites at Atlantis, Khayelitsha, Nomzamo and Maynardville.
- BuaNews
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