Speaking after this year's last Local Organising Committee (LOC) board meeting on Tuesday, Valcke highlighted that sales from hospitality packages, mostly to South African companies, in particular, has so far totalled over $115 million, translating into over 50,000 hospitality packages sold.
“FIFA is extremely pleased to hear that hospitality sales are far surpassing all set targets.
“The sales are going at a much faster pace than for Germany 2006 for the equivalent period ... [and] this is yet another indication of the attractiveness of the FIFA World Cup and it shows the strong confidence of the corporate world in South Africa's capabilities to stage a fantastic World Cup in 2010,” said Valcke.
The hospitality package which has seen the greatest sales to date, said the secretary general, has been the Big Five package, with each package costing about $1.5 million.
With regard to ticketing for next year's FIFA Confederations Cup, a mere six months away, LOC Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr Danny Jordaan said since tickets went on sale on Sunday 23 November 2008, the FIFA.com website has received over 35,000 hits.
“On the first day the tickets went on sale, there was [also] 30,000 ticket requests.
“So we are hoping that we can look forward to good sales and full stadiums next year and in 2010 for the world cup,” said the CEO.
The sale of the hospitality programme started ahead of the public sale of 2010 FIFA World Cup tickets, which is scheduled to start via FIFA.com on 20 February 2009.
Dr Jordaan told media that the board has approved the 2009/10 budget of R4.18 billion which will now be submitted to FIFA.
FIFA has also transferred an amount of $200 million to help the LOC cover operational costs during the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and World Cup in 2010, the CEO said.
Chairman of the Organising Committee for 2010 FIFA World Cup and FIFA vice-president, Issa Hayatou said FIFA was really satisfied with the ongoing preparations for the two tournaments.
“We would also like to congratulate the LOC on the work done... [with regard to the stadium preparations for the Confederations Cup] we have to be very prudent to make sure that everything goes will next year,” said Hayatou.
Article published courtesy of BuaNews
