For places like Grahamstown that aren’t home to shiny new stadiums or team headquarters, the impact of the Fifa World Cup will seem rather abstract.
For places like Grahamstown that aren’t home to shiny new stadiums or team headquarters, the impact of the Fifa World Cup will seem rather abstract.
Yet the potential the eventholds for non-host cities is more than we may think, says Prof Doreen Atkinson, co-ordinator of the research cluster on Sustainable Development and Poverty at the University of the Free State.
On Tuesday Atkinson delivered a presentationon the relevance of a mega-event for remote areas at the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) at Rhodes. She feels that the World Cup has changed developmental priorities in the country and that South Africans in local areas can capitalise on this.
While many may be concerned that the millions of tourists promised to us by Fifa and the Local Organising Committee (LOC) won’t pitch up or visit places like Grahamstown, Atkinson feels that the hype might still yield positive and progressive results, despite the many uncertainties surrounding the event.
“Subjective factors often have objective consequences and a boom can be sufficient to set a place on a development path.”
He also suggests that taking full advantage of the World Cup in non-host areas will rely on the effective management of resources and local people on the ground.
“The impact of a mega-event will depend on how it is managed at local levels and how the town positions itself.”
If the economic success that hosts of the past have enjoyed is anything to go by, the financial multiplier effects of the World Cup will be felt by the local economies of Grahamstown and the Eastern Cape.
The key question, as Atkinson points out, is whether such effects will last and later succeed in promoting further rural development.
• In the countdown to the Soccer World Cup, Grocott’s Mail will be running a series of stories on how South Africa hosting the mega-event will affect Grahamstown and the Eastern Cape.
