At first glance, the South Africa World Cup and the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games are similarly-sized ventures, at least in terms of operating budgets. Vancouver 2010's operating budget stands at around $1.8 billion. When you add the South Africa local organizing committee's budget of $532 million to FIFA's tournament budget of $1.2 billion, you're pretty close at $1.7 B and change.
They're both huge ticketing machines of similar magnitude, at least when pro-rated. Vancouver 2010 sold about 1.5 million tickets over a two-week Olympic period of events and the month-long South Africa 2010 tournament has surpassed three million spectators at 10 soccer venues with an average capacity of 48,500.
Most important, they're both similarly associated with more than $5 billion in venues and infrastructure.
In the case of South Africa, hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup involved construction or renovation of the 10 stadiums, about half of which were built from scratch. That generated 66,000 construction jobs according to the South African government. Also required were significant airport renewal and expansion (especially in Cape Town, Durban and here in Johannesburg) and massive transportation upgrades, including highways and rail.
Sound familiar? Vancouver 2010 saw the provincial and federal governments partner on about $600 M of Olympic venues; including the Richmond Oval, Hillcrest Curling Centre, UBC Thunderbird Arena, Whistler Sliding Centre and upgrades to the Pacific Coliseum and what is now Rogers Arena. In terms of infrastructure, Vancouver 2010 helped generate construction of the Canada Line, Sea-to-Sky Highway upgrades and the new Vancouver Convention Centre.
The largely comparable storylines don't end with the economic costs themselves. In the lead-up to both events, critics and doomsayers dominated the news coverage and spin. Skeptics in both countries questioned why monies were being spent on sports toys instead of providing for the homeless, hungry and ill. There was considerable angst over venue construction in both countries, with shared concern over timelines, costs and overruns.
In both cases, the years of severe anxiety and negativity turned into palpable pride and positivity by the time both events were a week old.
Of course, we all know both Vancouver 2010's venues and South Africa 2010's stadiums cost much more than originally forecast and both required additional government support to get the jobs done (the full measure of which is still being tallied by the BC government, especially in what it spent off-line).
Despite all of the similarities, there are differences and the biggest is in what the countries got for their money. While the spend was indeed similar, the return on investment is clearly higher in South Africa than it was in Vancouver.
South Africa 2010's $5 B in venues and infrastructure went a lot further than Vancouver 2010's $5 B. The stadium legacies alone are awe-inspiring and would make any fully-developed country in Europe, Asia and North America proud, including Canada. That, of course, has everything to do with access to and cost of labour in South Africa.
Arguably the most glaring difference between the World Cup and the Winter Olympics is the return on monies spent on security. The federal government of Canada rented close to $1 B worth of it at Vancouver 2010. South Africa, meanwhile, invested in the creation of 44,000 new police jobs. They'll stay in place permanently and, according to many South Africans, will serve as the most important legacy of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
The ROI advantage to South Africa on venues, infrastructure and security will also likely be joined by a big differential in long-term tourism impact. The impact of Vancouver 2010 on tourism in Vancouver, British Columbia and Canada simply cannot be compared to the impact of the World Cup on tourism for South Africa.
In the case of Vancouver, it was already playing from a position of strength as a popular Pacific Gateway city which hosted the world's fair in Expo 86. In the case of South Africa, it was truly a coming out party and hence a much bigger deal in terms of what it means for the country over the next generation.
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