Half a million unsold tickets remain for World Cup

[Mosiah]

my bad. it just seemed that way to me!

[Zeppo]

Number of Africans bound for South Africa remains to be seen

As the 32 national team managers evaluate players, consider injuries and plot strategy in preparation for the 2010 World Cup, millions of soccer fans around the world are completing their own plans for the tournament.

Most will watch on TV (some in 3-D). Still, organizers expect as many as 450,000 fans to travel to South Africa and join almost a million vuvuzela-blowing local fans attending the tournament.

According to the latest sales numbers, announced Friday, more than 925,000 of the 2.2 million tickets sold were bought by South African residents. But despite efforts by FIFA to market the tournament as a continental celebration, few Africans from outside the host country may make the long and expensive trip.

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[MdmeX]

Gamma - How long would it take to sail a YACHT from the Virgin Islands to some place in South Africa But then again, we may run into the Somalian Pirates

[Mosiah]

sigh

somalian pirates would be quite lost if they found themselves anywhere between the virgin islands and south africa!

[Gamma]

actually from anegada to the west coast of africa is a straight line they say without any land in between. yuh sail....mi wi fly thank yuh!

[Zeppo]

S.Africans queue overnight for World Cup tickets

South Africans queued overnight for a chance on Thursday to buy half a million unsold World Cup tickets -- including some for the final -- in the last phase of sales for the tournament which starts in June.

FIFA agreed this week to drop a ruling that tickets could only be bought online or through a ballot and they will be on sale over the counter at ticket centres, in shopping malls and some popular supermarkets.

That makes it much easier for the many South Africans without internet access or credit cards. It will be the first time fans can buy tickets over the counter and queues began forming late on Wednesday.

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[Zeppo]

South African dies queuing for World Cup tickets

A pensioner died in the queue on Thursday as thousands of South Africans queued overnight to grab 500,000 World Cup soccer tickets being sold for cash for the first time.

Police said the 64-year-old man suffered an apparent seizure as he waited in a queue in central Cape Town. He was number 565 in the line.

The Cape Town queue, like others around the country, began on Wednesday afternoon as South Africans rushed to get World Cup tickets, some of them for the final on July 11. Thousands of excited fans waited patiently in line, some blowing vuvuzelas, the noisy trumpets which are a fixture of South African matches.

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[ReggaeMike]

Gamma - How long would it take to sail a YACHT from the Virgin Islands to some place in South Africa But then again, we may run into the Somalian Pirates

Perhaps a week or a month depending on how fast you go (if you sail at 30+ kts then it really shouldn't take more than 5-7 days, but under 10kts and it might be a month or so). I wouldn't worry about Somali pirates though...in the Atlantic the main piracy concern would be off the Niger delta, so you should be safe unless you plan on a detour to smuggle oil from Nigeria on your way to South Africa.

[Zeppo]

100,000 tickets sold in 1st day of final phase

FIFA announced Friday that 100,000 World Cup tickets were sold in the first 24 hours of the final phase and 29 of the 64 matches are now sold out, but a number of less popular matchups still have unsold tickets in all four pricing categories.

FIFA ticketing subcommittee chairman Horst Schmidt said there were no more seats available for the final, both semifinals and the opening game between host South Africa and Mexico at Johannesburg's Soccer City stadium on June 11.

All matches in the coastal cities of Cape Town and Durban are also sold out.

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[Zeppo]

FIFA: We could have done better on World Cup tickets

FIFA admitted on Friday that their largely internet-based system of ticket sales for the 2010 World Cup may have been a mistake but added that stadiums will be at least 95 percent full for all matches after a sales surge.

Over-the-counter sales of tickets in host nation South Africa began last week, igniting real World Cup fever in the country for the first time and there was chaos as thousands of fans rushed to buy, crashing the computer system.

"I think we should have opened ticketing centres in the country before," FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke told reporters on Friday.

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[Zeppo]

Fifa admit World Cup sales in Africa 'poor'

A senior Fifa official has said he was "disappointed" by the number of World Cup tickets sold to fans in African countries.

Jerome Valcke said only 40,000 tickets have been sold in countries in the continent outside of South Africa.

The football body has faced criticism for not making tickets accessible to Africans, as most tickets were being sold via the internet.

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[Zeppo]

FIFA ticketing systems crash, no tickets sold

About 700 people pushed and shoved and organizers threatened to shut down a World Cup ticket center as fans scrambled for a last chance to watch the tournament’s biggest games - only to discover that FIFA’s systems had crashed.

Two hours into Friday’s final release, no one had been able to buy any of the 160,000 tickets still available for the world’s biggest soccer tournament.

FIFA said ticket service provider Match was experiencing “significant delays” due to technical problems across all sales channels, which include FIFA’s own ticket centers as well as local bank branches.

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[Zeppo]

World Cup ticket sales hit 97 percent

World Cup ticket sales have hit 97 percent and organizers are expecting to have sold above 98 percent of the more than 3 million tickets by the end of the tournament.

FIFA released figures two days ahead of the opening World Cup match showing that 135,000 of the 3.01 million tickets available for purchase remained unsold.

Of those, 30,600, including 5,000 with partially obstructed views, were available for public sale Wednesday. The remainder, allocated for hospitality packages, tour companies, national federations and teams, could be available for sale later in the tournament.

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[Zeppo]

Empty seats undermine Fifa claims over poor attendances

Swathes of empty seats have become a common sight for those attending games in South Africa, though television pictures have not always revealed the extent of the problem.

Fifa said on Tuesday that no-shows from corporate customers and overseas supporters were largely to blame, though they are content with the average attendances, which are marginally higher than at the same stage of the last World Cup in Germany.

Just four of the 11 matches played so far have been declared sell-outs, although eyewitness impressions have cast doubt on Fifa's official figures.

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