Cold weather, unpopular matches blamed for numbers

By MARK WALSH, Associated Press Writer 8 minutes ago

JOHANNESBURG (AP)—Cold weather and unpopular matches have been blamed for lower than expected attendances at some of the venues set up to allow fans without tickets in South Africa to watch the World Cup on big screens.

More than 3 million fans worldwide have watched the World Cup so far at the 16 official FIFA fan parties—including six abroad in Rome, Paris, Berlin, Sydney, Mexico and Rio—but crowds at the colder inland venues in South Africa have dwindled.

“There have been some games that we have seen a huge deterioration of numbers,” says Sibongile Mazibuko, Johannesburg’s World Cup project team spokesman.

Mazibuko says cold weather and “not necessarily popular” teams had affected crowds, but declared the parties had been “a huge success.”


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