Chris Meistre

I’m sitting here this morning, just over 15 days until the first Soccer 2010 World Cup match is to be played, wondering who the people are that will really benefit from it.  For years now the whole of South Africa have been preparing for the millions of Rands of money that will be injected into our economy.

Although I appreciate the fact that it will most likely boost our economy, to the man in the street (and me) what does that really mean?  It comes down to how much money will the 2010 World Cup put in MY POCKET.

For a moment, I’ll ignore all the millions being put into the coffers of the development companies that got all the contracts to get our roads, airports and stadiums in order.  Let’s concentrate on the normal people.

Accommodation

When I think of people making money from the world cup, the first thing that pops into my head is accommodation.  Early in 2009 a friend of mine approached me with an idea.  He is a property letting agent, and had started getting queries from people wanting accommodation for the soccer in 2010.  The idea was to setup a website to showcase properties that visitors would be able to rent during the world cup.  This would not be aimed at hotels, and guest houses, but rather people that perhaps have a second and third home that they’d like to rent out.  A few weeks later we launched Soccer 2010 Accommodation.  People could list their properties on the site and for those looking to rent, they could contact us.  We’d do all the screening, money transfers and paper work for the clients.

This was an instant success.  If I have to talk back about the Soccer 2010 World Cup when it’s finally over, this is the way I’d say I made my bit of money from it.

In a recent survey done by MyPE, it was found that the more traditional way of accommodation renting, was a bit lagging in getting their beds filled.  Noteworthy is one person that charges R19 800.00 for a two night stay in his guest house.

Food and Drink

The second most important thing I believe is the food industry.  Visitors have to eat, and I’m sure the restaurants and bars are all going to be packed.  It will be interesting to hear from one of these establishments once the world cup is over.

This includes all the shops that sell sweets, cool drinks, and all those other lovely little things.

Signage

All the signage that you see everywhere, posters, stickers and the like, they came from a company that got paid to make them.

Merchandise

I think you can probably put a soccer ball logo on any item and sell it as Soccer 2010 World Cup merchandise.  Might not be official merchandise or even 100% legal according to Fifa, but you can do it

Just drive around our city and check how many flags are out there.  Flags on cars, flags on cars’ side mirrors, flags at houses, flags at guest houses, flags at restaurants, flags in shopping centres, flags in… well you get the idea.  Someone (or at least a couple of people) got paid for those flags.

Petrol stations

Thousands of cars are going to be rented out, and those thousands of cars will need more petrol.  I wonder how many more vehicles will be on our roads?

Tour Operators

O yes, don’t forget tour operators.  Without them, a lot of the visitors to South Africa wouldn’t experience any of the hidden gems we have to offer.  There are almost limitless possibilities for someone that took the initiative to get a vehicle and start advertising as a tour operator.  Taking people to monuments, game parks and other hot spots in your city.

Street Vendors

In Port Elizabeth, we have the stalls at Kings Beach and Art in the Park at St Georges.  I wonder if the people will be making these stalls available during the world cup.  Surely it can only do them good?

Driving People Around

If you have a car, you can advertise your services to drive people around your city.  Take them to shopping malls, the soccer games, and all the other places you can recommend to them.  Anyone with a car can do this!

The above is just a few things I have been thinking of.  It just goes to show you, that if you really wanted to you could make a few bucks during the world cup.  So stop fucking complaining that everyone else will be getting rich off it while you sit at home and cry.  You could’ve done something about it, but didn’t.

Here’s a tip for anyone that gets a phone call from Telkom to do a survey. Actually, I’ve found this works for most survey companies, i.e. motor dealership satisfaction surveys.

The first tip is to just say, “Not interested” and hang up, but that puts you in the position of being rude to another person when it’s not their fault for phoning you.

The alternative is just to say “Hello. Sure I’ll take the survey”. They start the questions by asking if you’ve taken the survey in the last 3 months. Just answer, “Yes”, and they’ll tell you that you cannot take part in the survey then. Then… it’s over

You weren’t rude, and it still only take 5 seconds out of your life.

I don’t know why, but when I came and sat in front of my computer this morning I decided to look up some statistics about South Africa.  I came across Stats SA.  I don’t know why I completely forgot about them while I was searching for some statistics, they are after all THE people in South Africa when it comes to statistics about our country.

I downloaded a document dated July 2009, which is the latest version I could find.  Let’s see what interesting stuff about South Africa’s population we can find in it.

Male / Female Ratio

Gender Split

Male by Race

Male by Race

Female by Race

Female by Race

Population by Province

Population by Province

There is a lot more information in the document about HIV/AIDS and life expectancy. You can download the document from Stats SA