I remember where I was in 2004 when South Africa won the rights to host the world cup, I remember hugging a complete stranger standing next to me, imagining what it would be like to have the greatest show on earth on our doorstep.
I also remember saying to my good mate Luigi (an Italian my virtue of his name, that’s all) that we should start saving now and go to every Brazil (my team) an Italy match including both Semi finals and Final.
We had six years to save for the tickets and flights. So how much did we save? ZERO.
But we still managed to watch 10 games between us, I was fortunate enough to experience the opening match at Soccer City and SA’s wonderful goal. I got to experience the beauty of the Durban Moses Mabhida stadium ( my favorite) I got to watch Brazil twice, unfortunately I also got to see them being eliminated from the World Cup. I had two tickets for the final at R2800 each. But after Brazil, Argentina and Germany were eliminated I decided to sell them and start planning for the next major event on the horizon. LONDON 2012 !!!
I am not going to make the same mistake as 6 years ago, all talk and no action. A small group and I decided at a meal after seeing our beloved Brazil departing to form a travel club/organization and to start actively planning to attend the Summer Olympics. We have decided to get the assistance of financial planners and tour operators to help us prepare and be held accountable in preparing, saving and organizing to attend LONDON 2012.
Everyone in one way or another had an amazing experience at the Soccer World Cup, the nice thing about the Olympics is that is all held in one City or close to it. So the only flights that would need to be saved for are the return flights to London. Almost everyone I know has a family or a mate living in London, albeit in a shoebox so accommodation with a bit of begging can be arranged, no doubt the tickets will be more expensive the WC was, but there is also plenty of outside events to attend at no cost, like Marathon, Cycling, triathlon etc.
So how much do you need to save? Well that depends on how nice do you want the experience to be? How many days you want to be in London, what events you want to watch etc.
As if right now there are 746 days (24 pay checks) to the Summer Olympics. We are in the early stages of planning, but are serious about attending this eagerly awaited event.
We are hoping to get some kind of corporate, travel and media sponsorship together to support our “SA-2-London: The Friendship Tour”. So if you are keen on getting involved either my joining us on this adventure or as a partner. Drop us a mail on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we will keep you in the loop.
Our website, facebook page and twitter feeds will be live soon. In the meantime, follow me on twitter
Contributed by SportGuy
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