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mission accomplished
egypt pulls off the african continent's biggest football
tournament, earning itself a prestigious trophy, new sporting facilities
and an immeasurable dose of national pride in the process.
by amena bakr
it cost at least £e 800 million to host, gave organizers nightmares,
and in the end the african football confederation (caf) took a big
chunk of the profits, but for egyptian football fans, it was worth
every pound. egypt's national team surprised even its most devoted
fans, beating football powerhouse côte d'ivoire on february
10 in an overtime shootout to clinch the continent's most coveted
sporting trophy, the africa cup of nations.
organizers hope the success of the event, capped by a victory that
spawned all-night street parties, will efface the embarrassment
of egypt's failed bid to host the 2010 world cup. egypt spent $7
million on the world cup bid, only to have its hopes dashed in june
2004 when it received not a single vote from the 24-member fifa
executive committee.
redemption time, says viken djizmedjian, egypt's director of planning
for the local organizing committee (loc), the government body in
charge of organizing the african cup tournament. "our main
aim was to put the spotlight on egypt and show the whole world that
we are capable of effectively organizing such a huge event,"
he told business monthly. "with the amount of media coverage
we got during the games, i believe that we managed to prove it."
the 22-day tournament kicked off on january 20 with the opening
game at the cairo international stadium and 16 african nations competing
for the cup. but tournament preparations began two years earlier
when the caf selected egypt to host the biannual tournament.
building a venue
the organizing committee spent over £e 350 million for infrastructure
upgrades on six stadiums in cairo, alexandria, ismailia and port
said. the ministry of state for military production managed the
renovation work after the government grew dissatisfied with the
pace and quality of the construction work and terminated its contract
with the original contractor.
the main venue, cairo international stadium, received a complete
overhaul at a cost of £e 152 million - its first major facelift
in over 40 years. some 74,000 seats were installed or repaired,
and state-of-the-art surveillance, sound and lighting systems added.
it also received a new electronic entry gate system and a new grass
pitch.
"part of our objective was to bring back the families, who
had been missing for years, to the stadiums to watch the matches,"
says loc president hany abu rida. he explains that the stadiums
had fallen into disrepair and in recent years only "hardcore"
football fans attended games at £e 5 a pop. "these people
were mostly men from the middle and lower class."
intentional or not, higher ticket prices filtered out many of the
regular fans. spectators forked out anywhere from £e 20 for
third-class seats in the nosebleed section, to £e 200 for
first-class seats near the center, to watch the first match. by
the final match, the official cost of vip seats on the center line
reached £e 1,500. discounts of up to 50 percent were offered
to sponsors and fans who purchased multi-game packages ahead of
the tournament.
abu rida says the ticket prices not only helped cover the costs
of stadium renovations, they were intended to reflect the strength
of the local economy. "all the prices of the tickets were printed
online so it would have made egypt look bad if we'd had tickets
costing £e 5, as this would [suggest] we have a weak economy,"
he said.
of course, increased ticket prices meant increased expectations
on the part of the spectators. abu rida says reorganizing cairo
stadium's crowd management was a significant feat. arriving fans
were funneled through 36 electronic gates, each equipped with a
ticket scanner to read the bar-coded tickets, reducing the time
it took to enter the stadium. volunteers posted at every entrance
helped guide spectators and explain the new ticketing system. all
this under the watchful eyes of 64 surveillance cameras that allowed
security crews to monitor crowd traffic in and around the stadium,
and dispatch volunteers and stadium security to assist or intercede
as necessary, avoiding the need for riot police to intervene, as
was common in the past.
better organized food kiosks and two enormous digital screens at
either end of the stadium were obvious crowd pleasers, but abu rida
says the most appreciated change was the addition of women's bathrooms
in each section. previously three men's bathrooms served the entire
stadium. "by making such changes we managed to make watching
the game a more humane experience than before," he adds.
and attract new fans. by some accounts, nearly half the attendees
were women. for some, it was their first time ever to attend a match.
"i'm really happy with the organization," said mohab marouf,
a 45-year-old electrical engineer attending the egypt vs. congo
match. "i feel safe going to the matches with my wife and children."
assuming one got in. many ticket holders were turned away at the
gates because they arrived late or were denied entry by security.
several ticket holders who arrived early to the final match reported
being told the stadium was "full"; they accused event
staff of selling seats to the highest bidder. when they complained
to the loc, however, they were told that no refund would be provided.
musical chairs
as the egyptian team advanced through the semi-finals, tickets
became increasingly hard to find and a black market thrived. while
the ministry of youth and the egyptian football association (efa)
restricted ticket sales to five tickets per person, ticket scalpers
managed to get hold of thousands of tickets, selling them at a 200-percent
markup.
amir bishay, a registered volunteer at the tournament, says scalpers
obtained tickets from event sponsors and government officials, as
well as fans unable to attend the matches. he explained that some
sponsors purchased huge blocks of tickets prior to the event to
ensure seats would not remain empty, which could reflect badly on
their companies. the sponsors in turn sold these tickets, purchased
at a discount rate, to scalpers.
meanwhile, ministry of youth and efa employees who were supposed
to sell blocks of tickets to companies and individuals at the official
ticket price, instead sold them to scalpers at a marked-up price.
djizmedjian is aware of the charge, but says it would be difficult
to prove. "the black market is something no one can control;
it's just a fact of life and we have to live with it," he says.
police did, however, attempt to curtail ticket scalping. but by
cutting into supply, the police crackdown only served to increase
the black market price of tickets. and netted a few volunteers by
mistake.
bishay was arrested during a semi-final match when police mistook
him for a scalper as he attempted to sell extra tickets he had purchased,
at their original price, because his friends could not make it to
the match. "there were at least eight more people arrested
that day, but these people are just the ones on the surface. i think
the police were unable to control the black market," he said.
the scarcity of tickets fueled black market prices, with first-class
tickets selling for over three times their official price at the
final match. djizmedjian describes the situation as being a simple
calculation of supply and demand, "when the entire population
wants to go and watch the match it's impossible to make everyone
happy," he says. in order to contain the frustration of those
unable to get tickets, the loc erected three giant television screens
in cairo and one in alexandria. the matches were also broadcast
live on egyptian state television.
sharing profits
scalpers weren't the only ones making enormous profits. street
vendors were raking in cash selling football "accessories"
- flags, tri-colored hats and party noise makers. "i sold more
than 200 hats, which made a very good profit for me," said
ahmed abdallah, a street vendor working the traffic on a busy nasr
city street.
the caf also took a sizeable cut of the profits. under a deal reached
in 2004, egypt must share about 5 percent of all ticket proceeds
and up to 95 percent of all television and publicity rights with
the caf. sponsor deals were arranged separately, with the loc receiving
the revenue from two local sponsors, mansour group and its subsidiary
mcdonald's, and the caf taking the bulk of revenues from the tournament's
main sponsors, egyptair, blue sky travel group, canon, mtn, toyota,
lg electronics and tamoil.
while merchandising usually accounts for a sizeable chunk of revenues
at sporting events, egypt completely missed the boat. despite spending
an undisclosed amount on developing the official croconile mascot,
the pharaonic gator was seldom seen, though not for lack of interest.
companies that approached the loc to secure licenses to produce
official tournament merchandise were turned off by the organizing
committee's insistence that it could not guarantee copyright protection.
abu rida says copyright infringement remains a serious issue in
egypt, and it seemed certain that if companies began marketing licensed
croconile merchandise, cheap knock-offs would flood the market.
"we have to change the culture in order to [protect] copyrights
and it'll be a long time before anything like this will happen,"
he added.
as of press time, the loc has not yet revealed the final cost of
hosting the african cup. abu rida, however, told business monthly
that by the end of the quarterfinals, egypt's balance book had already
reached the break-even point. "that means we definitely made
some good profits." but he insists hosting such a prestigious
event is not about economic gain. "more than the profits i
believe that we have given value to the african cup and showed the
world who we really are, and that is priceless."
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