McDonald's scales back World Cup Soccer involvement

McDonald's Corp., the world's biggest restaurant company, waived right to exclusively supply food at South African soccer stadiums and fan parks during the World Cup tournament in June.

The company will instead focus on providing food at its 132 restaurants in the country, Sechaba Motsieloa, marketing director at McDonald's South African unit, said in a phone interview from Johannesburg today. The seller of Big Mac burgers has been an official partner of the soccer World Cup since the 1994 tournament in the U.S. and has global rights to the 2010 and 2014 tournaments.

"We are best suited to leverage our position at our restaurants than outside that environment," Motsieloa said. It's also a "consideration of capacity."

South Africa earlier this month cut its visitor estimate for the tournament to 350,000 people from 450,000 previously, with only 100,000 international air tickets having being sold three months before the event. SABMiller Plc on March 2 said it had reached an agreement with FIFA to supply as many as 10 million beers at fan parks during the World Cup after Anheuser- Busch InBev NV, the maker of Budweiser and Stella Artois, ceded its rights.

FIFA is planning to set up 10 fan parks with giant screens and bars to cater for fans unable to get tickets for games at the world's most watched sport event. The venues have been built to cater for a combined 280,000 people a day during the tournament, according to FIFA.

Revenue IncreaseMcDonald's expects sales at existing stores to increase between 17 percent and 35 percent in the build-up to the tournament that begins on June 11, with revenue seen climbing 10 percent during the actual event, Motsieloa said.Soccer's governing body, will be allowed to find a partner to provide food inside stadiums and fan parks, though they can't be a branded fast-food company, he said. FIFA spokesman, Wolfgang Eichler, said he couldn't immediately comment when contacted by Bloomberg News on his mobile phone today.McDonald's marketing presence at venues will be through its player escort program at all stadiums, and one McCafe coffee- house-style outlet outside the international media centre at the country's main stadium in Johannesburg, which will host both the opening and final games, Motsieloa said.Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald's sales from the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa increased 2.5 percent in 2009, compared with declines in the U.S. and Europe.