Thursday 26 April 2018

To host, or not to host!

'Loda' and his team members at the Old Edwardian Society before attending the ACER African Continental Championships
Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) has a long tradition of hosting international events.

Of all the events hosted by MSSA, MSSA has done South Africa proud in each and every event.

The events hosted by MSsA are:

  • 2013 - Silviu  'NightEnd' Lazar's visit to South Africa - Johannesburg
  • 2013 - IWF World Championships - Pretoria
  • 2012 - IWF World Championships - Durban
  • 2008 - ACER African Continental Championships - Johannesburg
  • 2007 - IWF World Championships - Port Elizabeth
  • 2002 - IWF World Championships - Durban
  • 1999 - IWF World Championships - Cape Town
  • 1997 - IWF World Championships - Johannesburg
Anyone involved in getting teams overseas who has been around for a long time will understand how government works and the impact that international events have on increasing membership as well as the burden that such an event puts on the organizers. Often those involved in running an international event exhibit all the signs of burn-out after the event and are sometimes physically ill from the stress and work-load.

The people who do the work are often volunteers who do both their normal jobs as well as other MSSA activities.

Thus to effectively host an event, there needs to be a local team that is going to do most of the work as well as get approval from the Ministry of Sport as well as to get the necessary buy-in from the municipality and the provincial government and/or the provincial sports council.

Thus, with IESF releasing its bidding documents to all member federations, the question has once  again been raised, does South Africa want to host the World Championships for esports?

If MSSA took the decision to put in a bid to host the event, there would also have to be the buy-in from corporate South Africa. Without the buy-in of corporate South Africa, few would have the resources to effectively host a top-of-the-line championships.


Certainly it would be nice to welcome all those foreign players to South Africa, but to do so, there needs to also be a committed local organizing committee prepared to meet all of government's requirements and to meet all the criteria as set down in the bid document.

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