SA’s soccer zeitgeist

With just more than 100 days to go until the FIFA World Cup and as soccer fever takes over South Africa, Google Zeitgeist has released some interesting figures on the popularity of the country’s stadiums.

So, then, which stadium is the people’s favourite? In terms of international search popularity over the past 12 months, Google Zeitgeist looked at which stadium is the people’s favourite… and are the rankings:

Ranking
1. Soccer City Stadium, Johannesburg
2. Green Point Stadium, Cape Town
3. Moses Mabhida Stadium, Durban
4. Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg
5. Peter Mokaba Stadium, Polokwane

Google says that in terms of the geographical origins of the searches for the most popular stadiums, there have been some surprises. South Africa, United Kingdom, United States, Zimbabwe and Zambia dominate the searches for the most popular stadium, Soccer City.

In Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and Kenya lead the ticket sales across the continent but do not feature in the top ten of countries searching for key World Cup venues. The graphic below that when the draw took place in December, searches for stadiums spiked as football fans from around the world looked for more information on where their favourite teams would be playing.