HICC’s indoor World Cup pitch

Maracana stadium, one of the Brazil World Cup venues

Imagine this: The Harare International Conference Centre (HICC) becoming an indoor soccer pitch with a 4 500 seating capacity, surrounded by HD eight metres by 12 metres theatre screens, high quality surround sound system, with food and drinks served to spectators and guaranteed power supplies. Not a bad deal, right? This certainly sounds like an illusion, but it’s real.

HICC has unveiled a package for soccer-mad fans at which they can watch live games, have food and drinks and interact in a Fun Park environment that is likely to save World Cup fans from escalating electricity blackouts in the capital. Dubbed the Fan City, HICC’s package is providing local soccer lovers an opportunity to watch football in a truly carnival atmosphere. But a few matches into the tournament the numbers trickling into the venue have not yet been generous.

Fewer people than anticipated have been frequenting the Fan City, but the hope is that as the World Cup gets more interesting, approaching the penultimate stages of the tournament, more people are likely to join the fun. Zimbabwe is five hours ahead of Brazil, meaning that matches that start at 1700 hours or 2000 hours are watched at 2200 hours and 0100 hours local time respectively.

Low turnout could be due to the inhospitable hours and the winter cold making people prefer to watch the games at home. But those attending the Fun City for the games say it’s worth every cent. Perhaps the fact that the World Cup started mid-month also means that people have less spending power.

But football, or the beautiful game as Charles Mabika likes to remind us, is a game that brings people together and Zimbabweans can splurge to watch the once-in-four-years tournament that draws the attention of the entire world.

newsdesk@fingaz.co.zw