Rural community perceptions of the 2010 FIFA World Cup: The Makhowe community in KwaZulu-Natal

Abstract

More developing countries are now bidding for and hosting mega-events. However, it is unclear whether the legacies of a sport mega-event will benefit the host country's rural citizens. This is a particularly neglected area of research on mega-events. Rural communities in South Africa remain marginalised and often impoverished. This study assesses rural community members' perceptions of the costs and benefits of South Africa's hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It looks at the impacts they anticipated and how they would like to have participated in and benefited from the event. The responses of 100 households in Makhowe in rural KwaZulu-Natal show that this community generally supported South Africa's hosting of the event and expected direct benefits. Both negative and positive experiences and legacies were anticipated. It is recommended that partnerships be leveraged with game parks to enhance opportunities for rural communities and that further research should be conducted.

Keywords:

• mega-event
• sport mega-event
• event legacy
• rural community
• 2010 FIFA World Cup

1. Introduction

Countries bid to host sport mega-events because of their potential benefits in the form of infrastructure, job creation, public and private investment and promotion and growth of tourism in the host region (Cornelissen, 2004; Swart & Bob, 2009). The successful hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup has reinforced South Africa's position as a sport events destination and confirmed its ability to host a mega-event. However, this once-in-a-lifetime event has also highlighted some challenges for South Africa's developmental objectives and concerns about who benefits from a mega-event being hosted in a developing country. Davies (2009) argues that although the South African Government committed itself to financing the construction of new stadiums and alteration of old ones, a significant proportion of the funds for this came from the taxpayers' money. Given that some researchers argue that this massive investment of state resources has diverted resources away from disadvantaged communities (see for example Maharaj et al., 2010), research into non-host communities' views of the impact of the Cup is imperative.

The hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa not only showcased the nine host cities (Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Nelspruit, Polokwane, Rustenburg, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Bloemfontein) as world-class tourist destinations but also offered non-host cities a chance to ‘maximise their slice of the tourism windfall’ (Atkinson, 2009:153). However, very few studies have looked at the impacts of mega-events on rural areas, and particularly the non-host rural communities' perceptions of and concerns about such events, including the 2010 FIFA World Cup (Magi, 2006; Atkinson, 2009). Most of the literature focuses on the impact of mega-events on urban renewal and growth. Questions are therefore being asked about the rural communities' chances of benefiting from mega-events such as the 2010 World Cup. This article contributes to this emerging body of literature.

The following section reviews the relevant international literature pertaining to mega-events and rural development. Section 3 describes the methods used to collect the primary data, Section 4 analyses the findings, and Section 5 concludes and makes recommendations.

2. Mega-events and development

2.1 Impacts of mega-events on host communities, and community perceptions

The FIFA World Cup has become one of the world's biggest sporting events (Grundling & Steynberg, 2008). According to Swart and Bob (2004), sport mega-events usually have positive social, economic and political spin-offs. They say that a country's ability to host a sport mega-event depends on international recognition of that country's economic, social and political capabilities. Mega-events are viewed as having significant impacts on the hosts. For example, Van Wyk (2008) postulated that South Africa's hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa would give the country tremendous opportunities that would contribute to GDP, infrastructure, social development programmes, the tourism sector and the country's global status. Higham (1999) points out that sport mega-events take place over a short period of time but have long-term consequences for the host cities, both positive and negative. Cornelissen and Swart (2006) observe that hosting a sport mega-event carries more costs than benefits – it can result in price inflation and tax increases because of the facilities required for the event, some of which will not be needed for future use (Saayman & Rossouw, 2008). Higham (1999) points out that local communities are usually excluded from participating in sport mega-events (because, among other reasons, they cannot afford to buy tickets for the matches), and questions the motive for staging sport mega-events, raising the issue of who these events are staged for, if local communities are excluded.

Ohmann et al. (2006) state that sporting events have several impacts on the community within which they are held. They say that community support for an event depends on several factors: perceived opportunities and benefits, perceived costs and inconveniences, sources of information, geographical or spatial proximity to the event and event related activities, interest in the event and identification with the event theme, and the extent and nature of community involvement and participation in the planning processes. These aspects have been examined by several researchers, including Ritchie and Aitken (1984), Deccio and Baloglu (2002), Fredline (2004), Hall (2004) and Kim et al. (2006). An important point made by this literature on community perceptions is that economic considerations linked to the hosting of a mega-event are prominent, particularly employment opportunities. This is evident in Pillay et al.'s longitudinal survey (2008) of South Africans' attitudes to the 2010 World Cup, which pinpoints economic growth, job creation, profiling South Africa and increasing tourism as the main benefits people associated with hosting the World Cup. Waitt (2003) and Cornelissen and Maennig (2010) show that perceived social issues such as community pride and international recognition are among the more widespread benefits for host communities, rather than economic gains. Waitt (2003) warns, however, that the significance of sport mega-events in addressing social issues diminishes if these benefits are not sustained after the event, and mentions as the main costs personal inconveniences such as traffic congestion and noise disturbances, as well as broader impacts such as increased prices and a heavier tax burden.

Fredline (2004) and Kim and Petrick (2005) stress that successful events are underpinned by community support, and Bob and Swart (2010) stress that resident perceptions of the impacts of hosting a sport mega-event such as the FIFA World Cup have the potential to undermine public confidence in the event. They say that residents' concerns and attitudes should be addressed by the event organisers and the government sector who invest significant resources to support the hosting of the event. The World Cup was positioned in South Africa as a developmental vehicle aimed at fast-tracking and creating opportunities to address critical social and economic concerns. However, the extent to which social and economic goals can be achieved and who is likely to directly benefit from the World Cup remain unresolved issues. Thus, the need to examine resident perceptions is particularly relevant in South Africa. Host perceptions of mega-events are deemed to be an important area of research. Understanding community perceptions can help organisers and hosts of mega-events to accommodate different stakeholders' views, attitudes, understanding and expectations about mega-events, and to assess policies and strategies to see whether they are indeed catering for these stakeholders.

2.2 Impacts of mega-events on non-host and rural communities, and community perceptions

There are valid concerns about whether public resources could have been better used to address poverty and developmental challenges. A critical aspect to consider is who benefits from the massive public investments required to host a mega-event in a developing country. Bob and Swart (2010) raise the question of whether the expected legacies and benefits of a sport mega-event are realised by the citizens of the host country. This is particularly relevant when it comes to positive impacts in rural areas where most of the poor live and where there are serious backlogs in service and infrastructure provision and employment opportunities are limited. Van Wyk (2008) points out that although the 2010 FIFA World Cup's socioeconomic benefits were supposed to accrue to all South Africans at all levels of society, whether and how this will be realised, especially in rural communities, has yet to be adequately articulated and examined.

According to Magi (2006), the media talked about the positive spin-offs the nine host cities would enjoy because of the Cup, but did not speculate about the benefits that might accrue to the rural communities. In particular, Magi says there were no discussions about the infrastructure, job opportunities and financial spin-offs that might accrue to the rural communities in KwaZulu-Natal. While research on mega-events tends to focus largely on economic impacts, these are often national assessments or confined to the host cities. The problem is that most research focuses only on the host residents' perceptions of a sport mega-event and forgets about the spillover effects that the event may have on non-host rural communities (Deccio & Baloglu, 2002; Atkinson, 2009). Deccio and Baloglu (2002) argue that although these events are staged in host cities, because of their size and scope they also have impacts on non-host rural communities. It is now imperative that these communities' perceptions of these impacts be examined.

2.3 Impacts of mega-events on tourism and rural development

The collaboration of different stakeholders contributes significantly to the success of any tourism development, particularly a sport mega-event. As Daniels (2007) states, sport tourism is an industry that has emerged within the larger tourism industry and has drawn much attention from both private and public sectors. Saayman and Rossouw (2008) say the importance of sport mega-events as part of tourism development has been recognised by governments throughout the world.

Atkinson (2009) argues that although the 2010 FIFA World Cup took place in host cities, game parks and non-host rural communities could also benefit from the event. It is, however, important to note that non-host communities differ significantly in terms of physical and infrastructural attributes as well as socioeconomic profiles. In particular, historically disadvantaged African rural communities (the focus of this study) are marginalised from tourism initiatives and benefits. Viljoen and Tlabela (2007) say these communities are at a disadvantage because of the lack of infrastructure development, accessibility problems and lack of investor interest in rural tourism. However, new kinds of tourism such as ecotourism and cultural tourism offer rural communities an opportunity to attract more visitors and investors to their areas, thereby helping to diversify rural economies (Viljoen & Tlabela, 2007). Ecotourism is a major attraction in South Africa and especially in KwaZulu-Natal, but rural communities are generally not integrally involved in it and most rural residents do not reap the benefits it brings.

The literature reviewed above suggests that the main direct benefit related to rural development is promoting rural tourism. Tourist visits to rural areas are deemed to be the most likely benefit and this relates directly to the broader intentions to use sport events (the bigger the better) to promote tourism. In KwaZulu-Natal, several forms of tourism are closely associated with rural areas, including ecotourism, agri-tourism and cultural tourism. In South Africa, rural tourism is seen as one way to eradicate poverty and create job opportunities in rural areas (Viljoen & Tlabela, 2007). However, Atkinson (2009) argues that tourism development has been unevenly distributed in South Africa, that the full participation of rural people in tourism development does not go without challenges, and that rural tourism has not been able to significantly reduce rural poverty. According to Viljoen and Tlabela (2007), South African rural communities face political and institutional challenges such as improving administration in rural areas, which is not as easy as in urban areas, and coordinating rural development and tourism developments seems to be very difficult. Magi (2006) observes that most rural areas lack proper infrastructure such as roads, rail, communication and recreational facilities, and that the benefits for KwaZulu-Natal's rural communities from the 2010 event were heavily dependent on the provision of proper infrastructure which would link them to the host cities. This remains relevant for the future hosting of large-scale events in South Africa. Atkinson (2009) argues that putting non-host rural communities on the international tourist map is a challenge on its own. Magi (2006) adds that crime rates seem to be the problem: in some parts of Zululand tourists have been robbed, assaulted and even murdered.

Atkinson (2009) argues that although the South African Government is trying to attract more tourism developments to rural areas, it is difficult for rural communities to fully understand how the tourism industry operates, and most rural people do not have the experience, skills, finance, marketing expertise and reliable market information they need to start their own tourism ventures. Atkinson (2009) emphasises that this lack of awareness, knowledge and understanding of tourism is the major challenge for tourism developments in rural areas because rural people cannot participate fully in the developments or the decision making. Although the hosting of the 2010 FIFA World Cup may have created a conducive space for non-host rural communities to explore ways of benefiting from the event, Atkinson (2009) argues that for non-host rural communities to really benefit there has to be strong support from all spheres of government (local, provincial and national).

Atkinson (2009) anticipated that tourists who came to South Africa for the 2010 event were likely to leave the host cities because of problems such as noise pollution, traffic congestion and crime rates and go to quieter places such as conservation areas for accommodation and relaxation. In addition the visitors might want to experience other aspects of South Africa's tourist offerings. Saayman and Rossouw (2008) provide an example of the 1994 World Cup in the USA. Their findings reveal that non-host areas benefited more than host areas because the host cities were too congested and tourists preferred quieter areas and non-soccer related tourism. In South Africa, while actual data and not yet available, visitors tended to concentrate in the host cities, and travel outside the host cities was mainly to game parks on planned tours.

Atkinson (2009) identifies four spillover effects on non-host rural communities that could have resulted from the 2010 World Cup and that provide useful information for the future hosting of large-scale events. Firstly, mega-events create a large demand for accommodation that may not be met by existing infrastructure. Non-host rural communities can therefore provide accommodation in satellite areas. However, expectations must be realistic. Davies (2009) notes that for the 2010 World Cup for the first time FIFA considered non-hotels as accredited accommodation, thus aiming to allow small businesses to share in the benefits by providing accommodation such as bed-and-breakfast establishments. However, the demand for these was not significant and had only small impacts in non-host areas generally. Secondly, non-host rural communities could be used as base or training camps for participants. However, as Atkinson (2009) cautions, a base camp must meet several conditions and is at the team's discretion. Typical poor rural areas are unlikely to satisfy these conditions, though ecotourism sites and non-host smaller towns can be competitive, as was the case in South Africa. This provides opportunities, if well planned and managed, for rural areas to leverage benefits. Thirdly, since the expansion of tourism opportunities is important for diversifying rural economies that normally rely on agricultural production, partnerships could be developed with established tourism sites such as ecotourism lodges to provide goods and services. Again, however, it is important to underscore the severe constraints faced by rural areas that make it difficult for them to take advantage of such opportunities. Finally, Atkinson (2009) calls for the promotion of route tourism, which is used worldwide to promote rural tourism. Lourens (2007) states that route tourism helps to bring together, under one theme, different activities and attractions in rural areas, thus creating a space for rural entrepreneurs to offer complementary products and services and form local partnerships. Atkinson (2009) argues that the 2010 FIFA World Cup provided non-host rural areas with a unique opportunity to attract tourists to stay overnight in their communities, or to attract the attention of visitors en route to their next match venue. Atkinson's 2009 study could not assess whether these spillover effects were realised during the 2010 World Cup, but it does touch on community aspirations for leveraging these benefits.

While the studies reviewed here raise concerns about impacts on non-host areas generally and rural communities more specifically, none attempt to integrate the voices of the rural populace directly with their perceptions of and concerns about South Africa's hosting of the World Cup and the future hosting of mega-events. The present article fills this gap by drawing directly from primary research undertaken in the Makhowe rural community in KwaZulu-Natal.

3. The study area, and methodology

Makhowe is approximately 200 km from Durban, one of the semi-final host cities. The Makhowe community falls under the Mdletsheni tribal area in the Hlabisa Local Municipality, which is located in one of the world's richest and most diverse tourism areas and, according to the Hlabisa Municipal Integrated Development Plan Review (2005/06), has great tourism potential because of its game reserves (Sabalala Consulting, undated). Hlabisa is completely rural, so some of its problems are lack of infrastructure and basic services, distance from major employment centres, and inadequate transport networks. Although the tourism sector offers economic opportunities for the area, these have yet to be fully exploited. According to Sabalala Consulting (undated), the tourism potential must be unlocked so that local communities can also benefit from the tourism industry.

To examine the Makhowe community's attitudes to and perceptions of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, we conducted a questionnaire survey in September 2009. We used a systematic sampling technique to select 100 community members, i.e. selecting the first case randomly, and then using a particular interval for subsequent cases. There was a population of approximately 300 households in Makhowe, so every third household was sampled. In each chosen household a trained fieldworker conducted a face-to-face interview in isiZulu with an adult member of the household. The 10-page questionnaire was made up of closed-ended and open-ended questions, designed to obtain the demographic profile of the respondents and ascertain their awareness and perceptions of the 2010 World Cup, their attitude to the event, their attendance at and interest in the matches, their views of the possible impacts, and their expectations about the event and its legacy. We used the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to analyse the data and identified themes using descriptive statistics.

The main problem we encountered during the fieldwork was the unwillingness of elderly members of the community to participate in the study. In several households the elderly member asked younger adults to respond. This could be because elderly members felt that younger people (especially males) were more interested in and passionate about football. The main limitation of our study is its focus on one rural community. However, given the gap in the literature, we feel justified in claiming that the study makes a valuable contribution.

4. Findings and discussion

4.1 Demographic profile of respondents

Of the 100 respondents, 60 were male and 40 female. The age of the respondents ranged from 18 to 70 years, with 69 of them being between 18 and 30. The average age was 27.4 years. Twenty-six were unemployed, 29 were students, 30 were labourers or unskilled workers, six were administrators, six were self-employed, two were professionals, and one was in sales or marketing. Fifty-three respondents, just over half, did not receive any income. The monthly incomes of the rest ranged from R1 to R5000, with an average of R1500. Forty-seven respondents had completed primary level schooling and 38 had completed secondary. This demographic profile reflected typical rural households with low incomes (or none) and generally low levels of education. Housing characteristics were also typical, with 79 of the households having pit latrine toilets. The Makhowe community have tap water and electricity in their households, recently installed, but most householders said they used hybrid systems (especially collecting rain water and water from natural sources and using fuelwood and candles as energy sources), since affordability was a key concern. The main problems the respondents had to deal with were unemployment (68 mentioned this) and lack of basic services (mentioned by 17). Other problems they mentioned were poverty, crime, excess consumption of alcohol and lack of recreational facilities.

4.2 Awareness of the 2010 FIFA World Cup and readiness to host

According to Donaldson et al. (2008), support for any event, particularly at local level, relies on the way local people perceive that event. Understanding local people's attitudes, reactions and perceptions is important because such understanding determines the success and failure of any tourism venture (Gursoy et al., 2002).

All our respondents knew about the 2010 FIFA World Cup. However, only 34 knew that matches would be played at the Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban, while 20 knew that matches would be played in Durban but did not identify the stadium. The rest (46 respondents) did not know where the matches would be played in KwaZulu-Natal. Generally, the female and older respondents were less aware of the actual venue in Durban. These findings may indicate the lack of access to information about the World Cup.

Most of the respondents (78 of them) said they thought South Africa was ready to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The reasons they mentioned were: the necessary infrastructure was in place, Bafana Bafana (South Africa's national football team) was ready, and South Africa had learnt from other countries that had previously hosted the event. Twelve respondents believed, however, that South Africa was not ready to host the Cup, for various reasons: the stadiums would not be completed in time, Bafana Bafana was not ready, and there was political instability, along with high unemployment rates and safety and security concerns. There were significant concerns about South Africa's high levels of violence and crime in relation to the World Cup (Donaldson & Ferreira, 2007; Steyn et al., 2009; Swart et al., 2010) and these were echoed by some of our respondents. Referring to political unrest, a few respondents specifically mentioned the recent xenophobic attacks and violence associated with elections in South Africa. The responses show, however, that the Makhowe community generally believed that South Africa could host the event successfully, as in fact happened. This sentiment was expressed across South Africa, with the Human Sciences Research Council's longitudinal study (Pillay & Bass, 2008) showing that South Africans generally, irrespective of location and socioeconomic status, supported South Africa's hosting of the World Cup and believed that it would be successful.

A large majority, 79 of the respondents, said they intended to watch the 2010 FIFA World Cup matches, particularly in Durban. There was a strong desire to watch matches at the stadium and in fan parks or dedicated public viewing areas rather than on television at home. The responses suggest that rural residents wanted to experience the event directly. Interestingly, equal numbers of male and female respondents intended to watch the matches, across all age and economic groups. The importance of the emotional experience of mega-events has been highlighted by Maennig and Porsche (2008). Twenty-one of the respondents gave reasons for not attending matches: 11 said they could not afford tickets, six said they preferred to watch the matches on television, and four said they were not interested in football.

4.3 Perceived impacts during the 2010 FIFA World Cup

According to Deccio and Baloglu (2002), sport mega-event impacts are not confined to the host cities but can also be felt around the periphery. Kim et al. (2006) state that one of the social impacts of the staging of sport mega-events is the disruption of local people's lives. Our findings show that most respondents did not agree with the statement (51 gave no response and 12 said they did not know) that the 2010 event would disrupt the lives of local community members and cause inconvenience (see Table 1). However, two thirds of the respondents (mainly men and the employed) were concerned about these issues: 67 thought the area would experience traffic congestion and parking difficulties and 66 thought there would be excessive noise in the community. Furthermore, 48 respondents felt that the event would increase the crime rate in the area (these were mainly women, across all socioeconomic groups). These findings show that a significant proportion the respondents anticipated not only positive but also negative impacts. However, it is important to note that our survey elicited fewer negative views of the impacts than did Swart and Bob's survey of residents in the host city of Cape Town (2009).

Table 1: Impacts the respondents believed the 2010 FIFA World Cup would have on their community

Type of impact	Makhowe (n = 100)
	Yes	No	Don't know
Inconvenience and disruption of local people's lives	37	51	12
Traffic congestion and parking difficulties	67	25	8
Excessive noise	66	32	2
Increase in crime	48	43	9
Creation of national pride and nation building	90	8	2
Local people feeling good about themselves and their community	90	6	4

Table 1 also shows that 90 respondents felt that the event would create national pride and nation building as well as make local people feel good about themselves and their community. Sturgess and Brady (2006) say that one of the reasons for hosting a sport mega-event is because such events can create national pride. Jones (2001) also says a sport mega-event may have this effect. Cornelissen and Swart (2006) point out that after 1994 the new South African government wanted to forge a new identity for its country and the government is using sport to promote nation building. It is therefore not surprising that most of the respondents agreed that the 2010 event would stimulate national pride and nation building in their area, because they had seen this happen when South Africa hosted and won the 1995 Rugby World Cup (Jones, 2001). Our findings also support Maennig and Porsche's (2008) assertion that sport mega-events have not only tangible but also intangible effects, the feel-good effect being one of these, in rural as well as urban communities.

Most of the 100 respondents (81 of them across all socioeconomic groups) anticipated directly benefiting from the 2010 event (see Table 2), mostly through the creation of economic opportunities related to tourism. Among the unemployed, all mentioned some form of income generating opportunity linked to business activities or job creation in the game parks. Those with jobs also identified income opportunities, suggesting that they expected the World Cup to create opportunities for supplementing their existing earnings. Given the proximity of the community to public and private game parks in the area, several respondents also identified the possibility of working more closely with the parks and expected parks to employ residents during the World Cup. This shows that some community members did anticipate that these parks would be visited by 2010 World Cup tourists and that they would be able to leverage benefits from this increased visitation. This does present an opportunity for future events, since the parks are already established tourism sites and they are able to create tourism products and markets that could expose rural communities to the visitors who are likely to be attracted to large-scale sporting events. Atkinson (2009) agrees that with the help of the parks, rural communities could have marketed their products and services to tourists during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. While these anticipated benefits were mentioned by the respondents, it is important to note that there were no planned activities in the community aimed at realising these hopes.

Table 2: Ways the respondents anticipated benefiting directly from the 2010 event

The community could benefit by	Makhowe (n = 100)
• starting small businesses.	12
• being educated about the opportunities that come with hosting such an event.	5
• establishing a relationship with the conservation parks in the area.	9
• working together to design strategies for benefiting from the event.	11
• creating employment opportunities in the conservation parks.	16
• selling traditional products to tourists.	28
Not applicable (did not anticipate benefits)	19

4.4 Legacy impacts

Preuss (2007) states that sport mega-events can have tangible or intangible legacies for the host country. According to Kim et al. (2006), local communities would like sport mega-events to leave them legacies they can continue using after the event. Most of our respondents (89 of them) believed that the 2010 event would be the best ever and leave positive legacies. In particular, 39 of them (mainly the unemployed and men) said it would create job opportunities, 35 (mainly younger men) said it would leave behind improved infrastructure and 15 (mainly women) said it would attract investors to the area. The responses show that the respondents highlighted tangible and direct benefits linked to economic and infrastructural legacies. Social, sport and other types of legacies were not mentioned. Massive public resources were used in South Africa for infrastructural development, in particular stadiums and transport networks. However, even though they were living 200 km from the nearest stadium, our respondents raised concerns about whether these facilities would be accessible to local people. Some respondents referred specifically to the Moses Mabhida stadium and said ticket prices for games that would take place after the World Cup would be higher than the normal prices they were accustomed to. Nadvi (2008) corroborates this, saying that when a country is awarded the right to host a World Cup it builds sophisticated stadiums that require significant costs to maintain, and as a result ticket prices go up and local people are deterred from using the facilities.

The Makhowe community perceptions resonate with those of several authors, such as Swart and Bob (2009), that both urban and rural South Africans' expectations about the 2010 event were related primarily to economic impacts and infrastructural development. Eleven of our respondents said the event would not leave positive legacies, giving as their reasons that the impacts would not last forever and the infrastructure developed for the event would not be accessible to local communities. The latter concern is relevant to rural communities, who are physically further away from reaping the direct benefits of the infrastructural development which was generally concentrated in or in close proximity to the host cities. Our respondents' concern about the short-term duration of economic impacts is similar to that of Pillay and Bass (2009), who state that although the 2010 event would create job opportunities, these would be of short-term or temporary duration and as a result do little to change or improve the living standards of most South Africans.

5. Concluding remarks

Most countries, including developing countries, pursue the opportunity to stage sport mega-events because of the economic benefits associated with them. In developing countries such as South Africa the rural populace is an important sector of society, and research pertaining to mega-event impacts and legacies must therefore not neglect this sector. It is important to consider how to leverage positive benefits for rural communities. Examining non-host rural communities' perceptions of the 2010 FIFA World Cup will broaden the scope of research into the way such an event affects the host country and increase our currently limited knowledge about community expectations and perceptions of sport mega-events in developing countries, particularly countries in Africa.

This study revealed that the Makhowe community was aware of the World Cup and expressed positive attitudes towards South Africa hosting Africa's first mega-event. Furthermore, almost all our respondents, irrespective of gender, age or income group, intended to watch World Cup matches, mainly on television or in fan parks. The study showed that rural communities support the hosting of mega-events and anticipate several direct benefits, many of which were linked to tourism. The links with tourism enterprises, especially game parks, located close to rural communities were also shown to be important for helping rural communities to leverage benefits. Viljoen and Tlabela (2007) say that involving rural communities in tourism ventures is one the strategies identified by the South African Government as having the potential to eradicate poverty in rural areas. However, Atkinson (2009) points out that rural communities have many constraints, such as lack of knowledge, which prevent them from participating fully in the tourism industry.

This study's findings also showed that the staging of a sport mega-event is perceived differently within a community. Respondents anticipated both negative and positive experiences and legacies. The main negative considerations were limited job creation, disruption of lives, crime and traffic related problems. Most of the respondents, however, highlighted positive aspects linked to national pride and nation building, income generating opportunities, infrastructural development, and experiencing this once-in-a-lifetime event. The responses often focused on economic aspects. Several studies (Magi, 2006; Cornelissen & Swart, 2006; Pillay et al., 2008; Davies, 2009) indicate that the economic gains from the hosting of a sport mega-event tend to be concentrated among a few people and in specific (generally host city) locations rather than being shared by the general populace. Disadvantaged groups, including those living in rural areas, are generally unable to mobilise the necessary resources and access relevant information to benefit from mega-events. In order to leverage some of the potential impacts of sport mega-events, Chalip and McGuirty (2004) suggest that it would be useful if host marketers incorporated various attractions and products, particularly those that are non-event tourism related, that the host country can offer to visitors who come to attend a sport mega-event. They state further that in most cases sport mega-event organisers and marketers do not explore how they can cross-leverage the benefits of the event. Some of our respondents wished to leverage opportunities from interactions with the neighbouring parks, and they are well placed to do so since the parks are the main and established tourism attraction in the area. In a developing country like South Africa, integrating rural concerns and planning to leverage and spread benefits can create new and unique opportunities for large-scale events and mega-events to realise development imperatives. The study contributes to the academic field of sport tourism and mega-events but also informs policy makers and sport mega-event organisers about a non-host rural community's perceptions of sport mega-events.

Our data were based on pre-event perceptions. It will be important to conduct post-event research to examine actual community experiences and compare these with the earlier perceptions, to see whether the anticipated legacy benefits have been realised and sustained.