Tournament News
Dutch, Brazilians invade PE
2010-07-01 13:50
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Port Elizabeth - Port Elizabeth has put a 'no room at the inn' sign up as Brazilian and Dutch fans invade this sleepy Eastern Cape city for Friday's mouthwatering World Cup quarter-final.
This is PE's sixth World Cup game and a full house of 42,000 is expected for the first time at the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium which was built at a cost of 2.1 billion Rand (270 million US dollars).
The only fixture that has really stirred the place up to now was when England and their travelling band of 20,000 plus fans came to town to play Slovenia.
The Three Lions' 1-0 win was watched by over 38,000 at a Nelson Mandela Bay stadium which in contrast had more than 12,000 empty seats for last Saturday's second round game between Uruguay and South Korea.
The city's Fan Fest at PE's historic St George's Park cricket ground has welcomed around 150,000 through its gates, a crowd that peaked at 29,000 on the day of the opening match between South Africa and Mexico.
The city's coffers, though, have suffered compared to other host cities like Cape Town and Durban from not having any teams using it as a World Cup base, with most supporters flying in and out on match days.
But accountants, hotel, bar and restaurant owners have their fingers on the till in anticipation of a cash windfall for Friday's headline last eight clash.
Thursday's edition of the local paper, The Herald, meanwhile reported a 30 percent increase in visitors since the World Cup began on June 11.
That could have been even better if teams had been staying in or around PE, Bed and Breakfast Association chairman Walter Passet told the paper.
"The fans booked accommodation in cities where their home teams are based," he explained.
"Unfortunately we failed to host even a single team."
Radisson Hotel duty manager Ravindar Kumar reported all 173 rooms were booked.
Fan Fest director Glenn van Eck revealed that PE's big screen in St George's Park had attracted the third highest attendance after Durban and Cape Town of all the 10 fan parks in South Africa.