Their Eyes Were Watching Soccer: San Franciscans Came Out In Force To Watch World Cup In Pubs, Plazas

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From the first buzz of the vuvuzelas to the final winning goal, South Africa became the center of the sporting world for the month-long affair that was the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The 64 games, which kicked off on June 11 with a 1-1 tie between South Africa and Mexico and ended on July 11 when Spain won the final match-up 1-0 against the Netherlands in overtime, attracted the attention of everyone from the casual fan and the old rock n' roll star to the diehard spectators and the betting animals.

Although the United States has a reputation for being ignorant and apathetic when it comes to soccer, you wouldn't have known that if you were in San Francisco on any given gameday, as thousands of people flocked to Civic Center Plaza during the World Cup to watch the festivities on two 13x18 projector screens. There were 17 total screenings throughout the month, all of which additionally featured live music, food vendors and booths from sponsors.

"It was a convergence of good ideas," Phil Ginsberg, the general manager of the San Francisco Parks and Recreation Department, tells the Appeal. "This is something I'd wanted to do from my first day on the job. Soccer touches my life for a number of reasons; I used to play and my kids play, and I manage a department with a number of soccer fields. This is the greatest international sports event in the greatest international city, and we knew it was going to be successful."

The event stemmed from a 2006 Dolores Park screening of the World Cup finals game that was the brainchild of Teacherbus CEO Jens-Peter Jungclaussen, who put on the event somewhat spontaneously and attracted thousands of spectators without an official ad campaign. He funded the $17,000 cost of the free screening with the help of the German Chamber of Commerce in San Francisco and public donations.

Four years later, the Parks and Rec Department hopped on board and turned Jungclaussen's original idea into a one-month festival that attracted between 35,000 to 40,000 people and raised over $100,000 through the help of companies such as Verizon and Visa and local sports teams like the San Jose Earthquakes (yes, there is a professional soccer team in the Bay Area, sports fans).

"It was wildly successful," Ginsberg said. "It was great to have people congregate in Civic Center Plaza. Everyone who came out was extremely joyous [and] we had no problems."

Futbol fanatics also packed into local bars and restaurants for the games, many of which made special concessions to attract more people looking to watch the World Cup into their businesses.

Kezar Pub, the popular Irish bar on Stanyan Street in San Francisco, showcased every match, including the ones which started at 4:30 in the morning. though not legally allowed to serve food and drinks that early. The pub also gave away Budweiser and Guinness pint glasses emblazoned with the World Cup logo and passed out free shots of Irish whiskey for every goal scored against the French team, which beat Ireland on a controversial play in a World Cup qualifying game last fall.

"For a whole month a lot of the games were on at 4:30, 7 and 11:30 [in the morning], so by lunch we nearly had a whole day behind us because we'd been open since 4:30," said Neil Holbrook, manager of Kezar Pub. "It was like every day was a whole extra shift, [and] we nearly doubled what we normally would."

But even more than the added revenue, Holbrook emphasized the energetic and diverse atmosphere was the best part of the past month of games.

"Being here was second only to being at the game itself," Holbrook said. "It's pretty cool living in San Francisco because it's a big melting pot of people from everywhere... It was great seeing people from different countries all coming together."

Meanwhile, Ginsberg was adamant about having a similar series of public screenings in San Francisco for the World Cup's return in 2014 and reinforcing the unifying sentiments of the games.

"It was a great event and clearly our experience this year showed San Francisco's passion and love of sports and for congregating with the community for something joyous," Ginsberg said. "I'd definitely want to do it again.

Photo: Steve Rhodes