I love attending sports events, especially major world events. I have been fortunate enough to attend grand prix’s, basketball games, football games, the Kenya vs. Sri Lanka (Cricket World Cup 2003) match, local rugby, the ill-fated Kenya vs. Moroco game, and others.
I have been fortunate to see live icons such as Michael Schumacher, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and others excel at their sports. And with the euphoria of the world cup, I have to seriously think about attending the next world cup in South Africa n 2010.
This will be as geographically close to Kenya as possible, and perhaps if our soccer bosses had got their act together, FIFA would have assigned some group matches to be played in Nairobi (like the Cricket World Cup in 2003). But our soccer administration remains a mess and SA is as close as Kenya will ever get to a major world event. not counting 2007 Mombasa X-country race
While we are busy waiting to see who the defending champions in 2010 will be, it is also time to make plans for such a trip - which will not be cheap. Air tickets, match tickets, hotel, restaurant, and entertainment, are some of the costs to be incurred. Air tickets are about $400 now - but will cost more because everyone will want to make a buck from the WC. E.g. a grand prix runs for 2 hours on Sunday, but hotels in the host city will typically require guests to book for a four day weekend stay at inflated rate.
I could sell cows, my car or all my shares, or throw in my savings to finance the trip. Even better, UAP insurance has put together a savings plan to enable Kenyan to meet the costs of such a trip. Even if I sign up with UAP but don’t go to SA, I will have still saved a huge chunk of money over the four years.
It is always fun to travel to such events in group, so it is important to identify pals who can seriously plan and save to go for the event with me. I do have friends who I sit around and watch the world cup with every evening, and who say we will all be in SA in four years. But are they serious? Only time will tell.
3 comments:
The less said about our soccer mandarins and their sidekicks / godfathers and mums the better. Great post.
I doubt KFF can see that far ahead. I wish we could privatize the whole soccer business here. Corporates seem to prefer to invest with things like ligi ndogo .. but KFF stuff .. won't touch them. KFF should stop being so short sighted. They'd make more money (if that's what they want) by thinking far, avoiding politics and selfish activities (yah we know these activities).
WC 2010:
can do a road trip, i suspect planes will be fully booked. KQ I hope are planning ahead. An extra number of flights maybe, a special package...
Maybe people should start figuring which stocks in the JSE are bound to shoot up as a result of this and invest accordingly.
Going there.. mmh.. don't we all plan to .. but there's a little time to plan that properly.
Talking about sports management: has anyone noticed how well the safari sevens seems to be going, it gets better and better and the corporates dont think twice about sponsorship.
The reason is simple: Well organised and packaged and the well healed or potentially well healed professionals of tomorrow show up in great numbers. Its a lesson that the soccer fellows need to learn...FAST!!
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