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Cape Town Countdown D-3: Cape Town Is Booming - And Buzzing About The 2010 World Cup Draw
In the latest of Goal.com's Cape Town Countdown articles leading up to the 2010 World Cup draw on Friday, John Duerden takes a quick look around this impressive city...
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Dec 2, 2009 8:51:59 AM
Business is good at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town. The apartments in the Marina, with the South Atlantic Ocean in front and Table Mountain behind, represent some of Africa’s prime residential properties and were little affected by the economic slowdown.
The pubs and cafes are not short of customers either. Even the fact that 37.5% of the centre is owned by the financially troubled Dubai World is not much of a dampener –already there is rumored interest from other buyers- just another example of how the world is connected.
This week is providing a much happier example as the world’s media, as well as Sepp Blatter, Charlize Theron and David Beckham, are descending on the Mother City ahead of the draw that will take place on Friday evening.
The locals are basking in the face of such attention from billions of football fans and are determined to put their best foot forward and show just what it means to call Cape Town home.
“There’s something special about Capetonians,” taxi driver Alan Willis told me as we sped along the N2 into the centre of the city. I thought the fact that he had called his son, born on July 18 (same day as Nelson Mandela he proudly informed me) ‘Bruce’ was evidence enough of that. But that wasn’t it.
“Everybody who grows up here stays here,” he said. “We are one big family in this city. Nobody leaves.”
At the moment, nobody is thinking of doing such a thing. The throngs wandering in and out of the bars and restaurants of Long Street will be back in greater numbers on Friday.
The draw will be made at the International Convention Centre at one end of the thoroughfare. Big screens are being set up, bars are ordering more beer as 15,000 are expected to descend on the street ready to have a good time and toast a favourable draw for Bafana Bafana or drown a few sorrows.
“Nobody really knows if it will be a drunken crowd or a wealthy crowd,” one bar owner told the local reporter. At the moment, the only guarantee is that it is going to be an excited crowd.
Cape Town is especially excited. The city was not involved in the Confederations Cup in June and is desperate for some World Cup-related action.
As the innumerable billboards and television commercials - one of the best shows Michael Essien taking off smart dress shoes to juggle a ball with a doorman at a swanky hotel - proclaim “We Can’t Wait.”
Friday night does not mark the end of years of waiting but does signal the end of the beginning. December 4 is the date when every South African and most of the world will know who is playing who and where and when. It is a new phase.
Robin Cohen is feeling the excitement build. “From Friday, we know what our tickets mean," he said from his office just a stone's throw away from the draw venue. "We know whether we are watching England play Netherlands or Slovenia and Chile. We know which teams will be coming to Cape Town. It will make it all real.”
“We are all getting ready for Friday,” said Craig Marsh a waiter at Haiku, an Asian Tapas restaurant just off Long Street said. “It is going to be a busy night for all of us. As a waiter it is great because this year there are going to be three tourist seasons.”
He is not the only one taking advantage of the World Cup boom in Cape Town.
“Local businessmen are getting busier and busier as we see when they come here at lunchtime. They have no time to eat with all the work they have and a lot of that is related to the World Cup.”
The whole city is getting a facelift and while some are not too happy about the traffic situation and other inconveniences, the vast majority is excited.
“The thing is,” said Dolly Mbuylane from nearby Paarl, taking a stroll at the V&A Waterfront, “the changes that are being made will continue to be felt after the World Cup but at the moment, we can’t imagine life after the World Cup. We have been waiting for years.”
It will really start to feel close on Friday.
John Duerden, Cape Town
john.duerden@goal.com
The pubs and cafes are not short of customers either. Even the fact that 37.5% of the centre is owned by the financially troubled Dubai World is not much of a dampener –already there is rumored interest from other buyers- just another example of how the world is connected.
This week is providing a much happier example as the world’s media, as well as Sepp Blatter, Charlize Theron and David Beckham, are descending on the Mother City ahead of the draw that will take place on Friday evening.
The locals are basking in the face of such attention from billions of football fans and are determined to put their best foot forward and show just what it means to call Cape Town home.
“There’s something special about Capetonians,” taxi driver Alan Willis told me as we sped along the N2 into the centre of the city. I thought the fact that he had called his son, born on July 18 (same day as Nelson Mandela he proudly informed me) ‘Bruce’ was evidence enough of that. But that wasn’t it.
“Everybody who grows up here stays here,” he said. “We are one big family in this city. Nobody leaves.”
At the moment, nobody is thinking of doing such a thing. The throngs wandering in and out of the bars and restaurants of Long Street will be back in greater numbers on Friday.
The draw will be made at the International Convention Centre at one end of the thoroughfare. Big screens are being set up, bars are ordering more beer as 15,000 are expected to descend on the street ready to have a good time and toast a favourable draw for Bafana Bafana or drown a few sorrows.
South African Fans Enjoying A Night Out
“Nobody really knows if it will be a drunken crowd or a wealthy crowd,” one bar owner told the local reporter. At the moment, the only guarantee is that it is going to be an excited crowd.
Cape Town is especially excited. The city was not involved in the Confederations Cup in June and is desperate for some World Cup-related action.
As the innumerable billboards and television commercials - one of the best shows Michael Essien taking off smart dress shoes to juggle a ball with a doorman at a swanky hotel - proclaim “We Can’t Wait.”
Friday night does not mark the end of years of waiting but does signal the end of the beginning. December 4 is the date when every South African and most of the world will know who is playing who and where and when. It is a new phase.
Cape Town Convention Center - The Draw Venue
Robin Cohen is feeling the excitement build. “From Friday, we know what our tickets mean," he said from his office just a stone's throw away from the draw venue. "We know whether we are watching England play Netherlands or Slovenia and Chile. We know which teams will be coming to Cape Town. It will make it all real.”
“We are all getting ready for Friday,” said Craig Marsh a waiter at Haiku, an Asian Tapas restaurant just off Long Street said. “It is going to be a busy night for all of us. As a waiter it is great because this year there are going to be three tourist seasons.”
He is not the only one taking advantage of the World Cup boom in Cape Town.
“Local businessmen are getting busier and busier as we see when they come here at lunchtime. They have no time to eat with all the work they have and a lot of that is related to the World Cup.”
The whole city is getting a facelift and while some are not too happy about the traffic situation and other inconveniences, the vast majority is excited.
“The thing is,” said Dolly Mbuylane from nearby Paarl, taking a stroll at the V&A Waterfront, “the changes that are being made will continue to be felt after the World Cup but at the moment, we can’t imagine life after the World Cup. We have been waiting for years.”
It will really start to feel close on Friday.
John Duerden, Cape Town
john.duerden@goal.com
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| Open an account with Sportingbet today and get up to £100 in free bets! |
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| Sign up with William Hill for a free bet up to £25 |
|
| Sign up with bet365 for a free bet up to £200 |
|
| Sign up with Paddy Power for a free bet up to £50 |
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