World Cup 2010 Stadiums Ready On Time But Over Budget, and Plan B is Dead
Good news for World Cup 2010: All ten stadiums (five new, five renovated) will be ready on time.
Bad news for World Cup 2010: It’s going to cost a lot more than expected.
Obituary news for World Cup 2010: Plan B is dead.
All this according to Danny Jordaan, chief executive of the 2010 local organising committee.
The cost overruns of 3.2 billion rand (apparently about US $314 million) aren’t a huge surprise. And not really the fault of anyone in South Africa either. Not unless it was a South African that started the economic death spiral we’re all currently enjoying. The value of the rand has dropped 24% against the euro and 30% against the dollar, and so the price of things like steel and concrete have gone up, up, up. Basically, 2010 is a horrible time for anyone to be hosting so much as a dinner party because of the aforementioned brown trouser time economy, never mind the world’s biggest and bestest sporting event (in your face Olympics!)
As for the bit about the stadiums being ready on time… we’ll just have to take Mr. Jordaan’s word for it. I’m not saying he’s lying, just that this is pretty much exactly what he has to say. I’d be very surprised if any World Cup organizing committee announced that their stadiums wouldn’t be ready on time. So fingers crossed. Toes too I think, just in case.
Finally, Plan B. I’m not sure how real Plan B was when Sepp Blatter announced in July that:
“I would be a very negligent president if I hadn’t put away in a drawer somewhere a plan B,” said Blatter.
“However, only a natural catastrophe would change things.
“If we had to activate the plan B, we would take our decision after the Confederations Cup.”
My guess is that nothing formal was ever in place, but Sepp might have had a quiet Swiss word with a couple of ready-to-go replacement hosts. As with the stadiums, Danny Jordaan has to say Plan B is dead in order to win the PR war.
Personally, I don’t think we should be making any final decisions about moving World Cup 2010 anywhere unless Confederations Cup 2009 is an absolute disaster. But that includes declaring the death of Plan B. I genuinely hope we don’t need to look in the back of Sepp’s draw, and I’m 90% confident that we won’t. But 10% of me was glad it was there, even if it didn’t exist.
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Comments
By Shazback | December 11th, 2008 at 7:51 pm 
Daryl, steel and concrete have gone down much faster than the Rand… Steel has dropped by almost 40% over the past three months. But the price should have been for when they ordered the steel, so if they ordered it three years ago (about when the stadiums should have started to be built) then the cost is still only about two thirds of what it would be now. In that sense, the depreciation of the Rand would mean they would pay less if they ordered in Rand, and more if they ordered in Euros/Dollars (likely they bought from a South African company in Rand, though). And by 2010 it’s unlikely that the current economic climate is still there. In fact, having a large crisis before should mean that the 2010 WC is a chance to re-start growth in South Africa, or be a sustained motor for said growth… A “mini-Marshall Plan” if you will.
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By catrachomilla | December 30th, 2008 at 1:32 am As sort of an extension of apartied, many white South Africans seem to spread around their (flawed) notion that the World Cup won’t happen in S. Africa. Also, it seems like just about all white S. African expats will tell you this. I on the other hand tend to believe that for sure that South Africa 2010 will be a brilliant success! I might add that I am an American that is married to a white S. African that was born and raised in Durbs. I have also attended the last 4 World Cups, over 100 matches!! This World Cup will be an amazing success and I cannot wait to spend the entire month there for it!! No doubt in my mind that the entire world will see what a great country S. Africa is and what it has to offer.
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