2010 World Cup tickets gross sales so far

It seems like the 2010 World Cup in South Africa might break a record in tickets sales soon – there have been over 650 000 tickets sold (according to their data as of 28 September 2009).

Also, according to the 2010 Local Organising Committee (LOC) boss Danny Jordaan; the tickets to the 2010 FIFA World Cup are in great demand being sold. It seems that a total of 345 894 went to native South Africans while 304 633 went to the overseas fans. The Americans have been the biggest buyers, having bought most tickets – a total of 82 603, then followed by the British with 48 926 and Germans with 23 924.

Jordaan commented that the ticket sales by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and other African countries were not as encouraging. Nevertheless, they do expect a turn of events and an increase in the demand for tickets after the Final Draw of the teams to be held in December in Cape Town. He commented; “We are very disappointed by our neighboring countries because it is not what we anticipated.”

With tickets being in high demand all over the globe, some have ventured into illegal ticket sales but at the moment FIFA is working closely with international authorities to break down these illegal tickets. FIFA stated; “While genuine tickets were sold online exclusively via the official website FIFA.com, unscrupulous individuals were taking advantage of the great appeal of this event by trying to use the internet to sell tickets they do not possess”.

There were also many who applied to be volunteers. By last August, a total of 67 999 people from around the world applied to be volunteers during the football spectacle, with most of them coming from the States. Jordan stated that all these applications would be processed with interviews being held later on.

Danny Jordaan also commented on the venue developments with the necessary construction of the stadia, roads and transportation to localities, disaster management, Information Communication Technologies, electricity issues and most of all safety issues.

He stated; “The story of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa is a story of promise, potential, possibility and rich purpose. The travelling fans are going to have difficulties to get to the places whose names are not clearly on the directional signs or on the airport destination boards”.