One Year to Go...Jo-burg Getting Ready!

Things are really happening around Johannesburg, even though the big event is a year away. Jo-burg will be the host to the FIFA ( Federation Internationale de Football Association) World Cup of Soccer in June of 2010. This event is the championship of soccer for the world, an event bigger than the Superbowl or any other. Like the Olympics, the host cities are chosen many years in advance and this is the first time an African country has been selected. The Republic of South Africa has invested huge amounts of money building and improving infrastructure, and everyone hopes that the world will show up. The world economy will have an impact of course, but all efforts are being made to encourage success. Even though it is a year away, signs are popping up everywhere that it really is coming.

...the city skyline of Johannesburg. The city was built on the wealth achieved from the gold industry. The Province (state) that Jo-burg is located in is known as Gauteng ( pronounced howteng) . It comes from the tribal tongue meaning Gold Town. Also within the Gauteng Province is the political capital of SA, which is Pretoria. This would be like having NYC and Wash. DC both located in a state the size of Maryland.







Construction is everywhere. Here is a shot of a new hotel on the right, a large shopping center further down the street and the entrance to the new underground train that will bring people to and from all four corners of the province to central Johannesburg.

Here is a 60 foot tall soccer ball on the side of an apartment building.

Coke ads are everywhere! They are an official sponsor of the World Cup, but they have no competition here. Maybe that's how they got the monopoly, promising major endorsements, since you can not find a Pepsi product anywhere, and all bottled water, and other softdrinks are bottled by Coke-South Africa.

Another bigger than life example of Coca-Cola's dominance.

Hi-tech live video signs are also dotting the landscape. Sorry I did not attach a video clip
of this one as it was action packed and really quite 'cool'.

Here is an example of one of the stadiums being built for this event. The building is enormous. I believe it will seat about 100,000 and be state of the art. A German company has designed this one and is overseeing the construction, but being a socialist country, SA labor unions have insisted that all the jobs go to South Africans. I am wondering what will happen to these hundreds of thousands of high paying government provided jobs once all the games are here and the construction is finished. Even with all the roads, bridges, stadiums, hotel construction etc. there is still an unemployment rate of 23%. The biggest industry to take the hit is the auto industry. Car makers such as, Volvo, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, GM, Toyota and Nissan and Ford have plants here and they have all seen significant 'retrenchments'

...a better view

...to show you the size of this one stadium, notice the workers on the roof. There are two others being constructed as well.




We know teams will come to compete from all over the world, even the USA, so we hope for the sake of this country that people will come to see the games from all over the world as well. While here they can see the world's best variety of wild animals and the thousands of miles of beautiful coastline.

...it even looks like Mother Nature is going to cooperate and give her 'thumbs up!'.

With the lopsided emphasis that the world places on sports, I have a hunch that if you build it...they will come.

All the best Jo-burg!