Volvo Ocean Race - Cape Town Stopover

We are just over a year from the conclusion of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. On July 12 last year, South African’s of every race woke up to the realization that they had delivered, beyond any expectations, including their own, a World cup that was quite possibly the best ever. That spectacle was one of the top 3 most watched events on television, and at the end of November this year, the city of Cape Town will welcome the leaders of another of the world’s top 3 televised events..the Volvo Ocean Race.

It will be fitting therefore, that the famous skyline that has welcomed sailors from the beginning of time to the ‘Mother City’ will have changed dramatically to receive the ‘Class of 2011’.

As always, the majestic sandstone walls of Table Mountain are likely to be the first feature that will attract their gaze, but this time, the crews and followers of the Volvo Ocean Race will have their eye’s drawn to a spectacular new colossus that has risen about the Greenpoint skyline.

The FIFA 2010 Cape Town Stadium will welcome their admiring glances, it will remind them of those 4 weeks of passion and pride that brought the eyes of the sporting world to the city, and more importantly, it will say..”Welcome Volvo Ocean Race..the world its watching again..now let’s give them another show..”

John Carlin, author of Playing the Enemy, commented about a remark promoted by FIFA that the World Cup was the 1995 Rugby World Cup all over again, that it was about healing racial wounds, uniting the fractured nation, but Carlin said those comments were off the mark.

"It was much, much better than that," he says. "What we saw was just how united and racially healed South Africa really is, how far we've advanced since the ‘nervy nineties’."

Blatter said South Africa had scored a nine out of 10 for its hosting of the event, "making it a doctorate summa cum laude".

Blatter gave South Africa a near-perfect 9 out of 10, and analysts said the spin-offs of tourism and improved perceptions abroad could have a long-lasting impact not only on South Africa and its development but on the continent as a whole.

It is with this in mind, that WORLDSPORT, the company contracted to run the Volvo Ocean Race Cape Town stopover, will be setting the goalposts.

Sailing may not have the global mass-appeal of football, but for the organizers, the 2 weeks that the “Formula One’ of yachting shows it’s face to Cape Town will represent far more than 7 boats and a race around the world. The 2 weeks will represent another opportunity for a ‘Top 3’ global television audience to focus on the tip of Africa, and with that will come the long term rewards.

The Global Media Exposure and Economic Impact of the event is estimated at 2.9 billion cumulative media consumers. They are spread across 13 000 newspaper articles, 217 TV Channels, 3.8 million Race Village Visitors and on average R 310 million Economic Impact to each Host Port. Cape Town will once again feel the huge injection of passion which will benefit the city long; long after the final sail has disappeared over the horizon. The 2008 race stopover for example generated an estimated total economic impact of R308.15 million for Cape Town and the Western Cape. The tourism destination marketing exposure for Cape Town was estimated at R77.45 million. Local communities were also involved in the stopover through volunteer programmes, student internships, community days and a local craft exhibition. 

There we have it then.

Sailing may not carry the people-power of football, but the shared vision and ambitions of WORLDSPORT, of Volvo Ocean race organisers,  and of crews and fans will be every bit as motivated to move and stir the heart of a city.

For the 2 weeks in November, whenever your paths cross with the sailing fraternity as they bring the Oceans greatest ‘reality show’ to Cape Town, think of what the FIFA 2010 World Cup did for our country. Whilst the boats, crews and fans will not have arrive via a ‘fanwalk’, carrying quite the same volume, and whilst they will not leave a 55 000 seater stadium to welcome future events..The glow and after effects will be felt beyond this sports mad city for a long, long time.