The 2023 Vitality Netball World Cup Tournament Director, Ms. Priscilla Masisi says the country is ready to welcome the world. South Africa will host the global tournament in Cape Town at the International Convention Centre from 28 July to 6 August, 16 countries from around the world will be vying for the crown of the best netball team in the world, hoping to dethrone New Zealand who has won the competition five times.
This will be the first time the competition is hosted on African soil since its inception over 60 years ago, the continent is represented by South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Uganda. Masisi says the tournament organisers and the local organising committee have made big strides.
“We are very far ahead with our plans. There’s a lot of work that has been done. We have secured the accommodation and transport for the teams. We have finalised the uniform arrangements and the logo. We were just waiting for Vitality to launch so that the bib could be finalised. The security plans are in place. All arrangements are on track,” says Masisi.
The World Cup venue hosted the Quad Series in January and Masisi says the tournament was an important dry run for the global competition later this year. Although the four nations tournament is slightly smaller than the global spectacle, the former Chief Director at the national Department of Sport, Arts, and Culture reckons they were able to tick some boxes that need to be done.
“We had the Quad Series which was a dry run for us and during the dry run we had to look at the other arrangements. The venue itself. Remember that venue is just a shell and you have to bring everything. You have to bring in seating, you have to bring in the court, so we learned a lot from the dry run. We are ready, we have new floors. They have arrived. We used some of them on the Quad Series. It was a successful dry run and we are ready. We are confident we will host a successful World Cup.
“The lesson that we took from there was if you look at the seating that was put in place, the space was very limited, especially where the teams were sitting. So we have to ensure that the staircases have to move to the side so that we clear the floor area so that it has enough space between the seating and where the teams are going to be. Also, we had to look at the traffic flow that we had to redirect, working with the traffic (department). But in terms of the venue, logistically, we are confident. We were also able to send live feed internationally, SuperSport was a great partner,” she says.
The second phase of the ticket sale went out on Friday, 10 February and fans were already scrambling to get their hands on the tickets they wanted. This saw some matches being sold out already, including the day of the opening ceremony which will see the Spar Proteas play their opening match against Wales.
Ticket prices start from R500, and are classified in various categories gold, silver, and bronze levels, as well as adult and junior prices. However, the pricing of the tickets might see many South Africans not being able to attend the matches live at the ICC. Masisi says the LOC together with Netball SA has made plans for the tournament to reach different parts of the country.
“We are creating fan parks and viewing centres across the nine provinces because the venue has got a limited capacity. We are going to be using two venues, CTICC 1 which will be our main arena, and CTICC 2 which will be our second arena. Our first arena can accommodate 5000 seats and the second arena will only accommodate 1200 (spectators). So we are urging our (fellow) South Africans and followers to go to fan parks and viewing centres so they can watch the games and be part of this event. The won’t be tickets sold for fan parks.
We must also remember that the rights are held by World Netball and they are the custodians of this event, so they have a say in determining the (ticket) price. We also looked at other international games, we looked at how much the 2010 (World Cup) were, also looking at the venue capacity, also we need to ensure that netball remains profitable so they can professionalise the game,” she explains.
Although there is still no big hype about the tournament, Masisi believes the LOC is doing enough marketing to ensure that all South Africans are excited about what is to come.
“We are marketing the World Cup but remember we also don’t want to over-market the event that only has 5000 capacity. We are going to see more of the marketing now that we are six months closer to the event. With the 2010 (World Cup), you must remember that there were a lot of sponsors and with us, almost 50 per cent of our funds are coming from the government. We don’t have a lot of funding and now that we are launching Discovery we are going to see the momentum rising and then there will be a lot of activation on the ground,” she says.
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