Why AFCON 2013 Stadia Have Been Mostly Empty
VENTURES AFRICA Africa’s biggest sporting event, the Cup of Nations is just half way through its first week, having nearly concluded the second round of matches at the group stages. However, all the excitement and noise about the competition seem lost in the host country as the stands have virtually been empty at least for the first round of games. In fact the opening ceremony was notoriously empty. But why are the stands empty, do South Africans hate football or are the tickets too expensive?
The first question is pretty easy as we all know South Africa is a soccer loving nation. Local matches of the SA league which are beamed on DStv regularly shows a full and boisterous crowd at various stadia. According to media reports the Orange African Nations Cup ticket cost between $5.88 to $22.35 just to watch a match at the current Orange African Nations Cup (that is in Naira terms between N923 to N3,509). The price by the way is for South African Citizens. In fact a single ticket would have gotten you the two opening matches.
According to organizers a total of 1,474,792 seats are available in the 5 stadia that will be used for the tournament while organizers planned to sell about 500 tickets. The orgainisers therefore expect to get between $2.9 million and $11 million for the tournament. Contrast this to Euro 2012, which had ticket prices ranging from Eur 30 to Eur 300. In addition, the Euro 2012 had about 550,000 tickets available for sale and received about 12,149,425 tickets applications. Yet the Euros was very well attended as the stadiums were mostly full for almost every match played in the tournament.
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