Don’t make the same mistakes we did, says a well-known chef based in South Africa during last year’s FIFA World Cup.
By Veronica Johnston
Chef Peter Goffe-Wood is a man who speaks from experience. The veteran chef runs a restaurant in Cape Town, where he saw firsthand how the soccer tournament affected the city’s restaurant trade. I spoke to him prior to his guest appearance at the Restaurant and Bar Show here in July, to hear his surprisingly honest account of the wrong assumptions he and his peers made in the build-up to the event.
What happened during the event?
One of the biggest problems we had with the Cup is we believed the hype. People were telling us about how many people were coming and how much they were going to spend. But Cape Town wasn’t as busy as we anticipated.
The tournament was also in the middle of winter, which in Cape Town particularly, is a dead season for us. So we thought whatever business we got in July was going to be fantastic because it would give us a half decent winter at least.
Hence the reason why some didn’t overdo it in terms of getting ready for anything in particular – we just expected it to be nice and busy. The restaurants at the waterfront prepared and benefited more though because they are within walking distance of the stadium.
Why wasn’t Cape Town as busy as expected?
What Cape Townians didn’t really realise, though it dawned on us nearer to the time, was that none of the teams liked to be based at sea level. They all wanted to train at altitude which basically meant all the teams, their fans and media were based in Johannesburg for six weeks.
The fans and media would only fly down to Cape Town for a game. They’d arrive the day before, go out in the evening, have the game day then fly or train back to Johannesburg the next day.
That was where we came up a bit short. We were anticipating they’d be in Cape Town for five days at a time, visiting the wine regions for example, but that never happened. Cape Town wasn’t the only city that got this wrong either.
What about the 2009 rugby Lions tour?
There’s a distinct difference between football and rugby supporters. When the Lions were here, their fans travelled down to Cape Town for three or four days before the game and did a bit of sightseeing. They hired cars and went up the coast and bought wine.
So we were kind of anticipating football supporters would do the same, but the football crowd are different beasts. They will sleep five to a bedsit as opposed to the rugby crowd, who have a bigger spend. If the exchange rate is good, the rugby traveller will buy more expensive wine than they would usually.
Hence the reason why lessons need to be drawn from both these events for Rugby World Cup 2012, based on what we experienced in South Africa, in terms of the numbers and different types of spending power they have.
How should we prepare for RWC 2012 then?
Examine the schedule to see whose playing in your backyard and brace your business accordingly. Look at the game schedules to see where the games are, where the teams are going to be staying, what the game days and times are, (whether they are mid-week or weekend games), who is playing and where the big match games are.
Approaching the event with a wait and see attitude is going to cost you money. You could end up running out of beer or not having enough staff to cope with what could have been a good night or weekend and that would just be foolish.
One thing we noticed with the rugby and football events is you can never have enough beer. It’s just one of those things. You’ve got these match people who want to drink before they go into the stadium and afterwards.
During the Lions tour, Cape Town didn’t have any of the tests but we had a couple of week day games against the emerging springboks. Yet two local pubs got cleaned out of beer before the players even arrived. So start stalking to your suppliers now.
Also, start building relationships with your local accommodation providers and other bars and restaurants to find out where they’re sending their guests. The more people talk to each other, the better prepared everyone is. And be prepared for the worse in terms of manpower.
What about price gouging?
We had a big problem with price gouging here also. You want there to be longevity and life after the Cup and you want people to shout your name when they come back. But if they come and see they’ve been ripped off, they’ll go back with a bitter taste in their mouth. That’s just short sighted.
Chef Peter Goffe-Wood will be a key note speaker at the Restaurant and Bar Show 2011.