Buy World Cup Tickets - Please!

If you're South African or from the immediate area, the organizers of the 2010 World Cup want you to know some important information: Buy your tickets soon or else ...

Organizers want South African fans to break their habit of buying tickets on game day.

"We have a challenge in filling the stadiums," Danny Jordaan, chief executive of the South African organizing committee, told a press conference in Johannesburg.

"We have to educate our people to start buying their tickets for the World Cup when they go on sale next month," he said.

Soccer games rarely sell out in Africa, making it relatively easy for fans to buy tickets at the gate.

But doing so during the World Cup, which begins on June 11, 2010, will see many locals shut out and deal a blow to hopes that the tournament would have a heavy African influence in the stands.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter said the global financial crisis would not have a significant impact on the World Cup, though he added that the tournament might not be as profitable as the 2006 final in Germany.

"The budgets have been composed, given and ratified. Naturally, we might not have the same return of investment as we had at the last World Cup in 2006, but the world was a different place then," Blatter told FIFA.com.

South Africa has vowed to finish building all 10 stadiums for the World Cup on time although the cost will be more than initially forecast, due partly to a weaker local currency (the rand) and higher construction costs.

Rising prices for imported cement, steel and other key building materials and higher labor costs have wreaked havoc on the stadium construction budgets, leading to a 3.2 billion rand ($316 million) shortfall.

Local organizers are concerned about keeping the budget from spiraling out of control and finding the funds to meet the shortfall.

South Africa expects 450,000 visitors for the World Cup and hopes the finals will spur tourism and investment in Africa's richest economy.

MY POV: Tickets go on sale next month ... anyone out there want to help a poor New Yorker get to SA?