Turns Out Hosting the World Cup is Expensive

Make no mistake, hosting the World Cup is an expensive game. There are stadiums to be built, infrastructure to be improved and important undersea communications cables to lay. And it just got a little more expensive, as the South African Deputy Finance Minister Jabu Moloketi has announced that the cost of making the 2010 World Cup happen in his country could be about 2.8 to 3.4 billion rand more than originally expected.

For a vague conversion, that’s about $450 million dollars, and 20% above the planned amount. The country’s budget isn’t announced until February 2008, but Moloketi is basing his numbers on reports from officials in the nine cities set to host World Cup matches. The big problem seems to be the rising cost of cement and steel. I’m no architect or construction expert (unless that poorly put together treehouse from my youth counts) but my guess is cement and steel are fairly important bits in building a football stadium. The other thing you need is happy workers, and several have been on strike to demand higher wages in line with South Africa’s 6.7% inflation rate. There was a 12 day strike at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban recently, but a bit of negotiation and it’s all good.

So no one panic. There’s plenty of time before World Cup kickoff, and FIFA claim they see no “red lights” just yet. $450 million dollars is obviously a lot of money, but not enough to prevent a moneyspinner like the World Cup going ahead as planned. We’ll get our first glimpse of South Africa as World Cup hosts this Sunday, when the draw to determine the various World Cup 2010 Qualification groups is made in Durban.