South Africa upbeat over bid to host World Cup
● The projected profit of nearly R10m listed in Cape Town’s bid book for the 2023 Netball World Cup is hugely understated, says one of the men who helped draw up the document.
The projected income is listed at R77m, with R47m coming from national government, R15m from sponsorship and R12m from ticket sales.
Expenditure totals a little less than R68m, with the biggest costs being R16m for personnel, R10.7m to hire the city’s International Convention Centre and a further R7.1m to set up the venue and add seating.
There is massive room for growing revenue, said Gary Grant, MD of Accelerate Sport, the sports marketing commercial partner of Netball SA (NSA).
The International Netball Federation (INF) is expected to announce on Thursday the winner of the bid, with the other contender being Auckland in New Zealand.
This is the first bid by Africa, while the Kiwis have staged the event three times before, though the 2007 edition was a rescue mission after plans for Fiji to host the tournament collapsed.
Netball is SA’s second-biggest team sport after football in terms of participants, but in New Zealand it’s almost a religion.
The Silver Ferns have so many fans that it’s not uncommon for them to share tickets to World Cup matches so each person gets to watch only a part of a game.
“They always never have enough tickets so what happens is if they’ve got 3,000 people and 1,000 tickets, they will share,” said NSA spokesman Bruce Davidson. “It’s an agreed thing, and they have a special arrangement in place for New Zealand fans.”
The Cape Town showpiece would attract about 100,000 fans for the 10-day event, each one spending an estimated minimum R20,000, resulting in a boost of more than R2bn to the Western Cape.
Grant said income from ticket sales could be closer to R30m.
“Every single World Cup has been sold out to date,” he said, adding sponsorships could bring in more too.
Broadcast rights, unlike rugby and football World Cups, belong to the host and would also push up revenue.
“It’s possible that government might not have to pay in anything apart from the entry and sanction fees.”
SA had to pay a nominal fee of about £20,000 (about R373,000) to enter the bid, and if successful they will need to pay a £200,000 (R3.73m) sanction fee by June.
Grant is upbeat about the commercial potential of the event if the bid is successful, having overseen the growth in NSA’s value, from a total sponsorship of R2.4m five years ago to R25m.