New Stadium Means Extra 2 Weeks of World Cup Soccer for Cape Town
Despite SA Blog’s having tipped the project as mere pre-election bluster, it would seem that plans for a new, ultra-modern stadium in Cape Town are really real – really.
At least, this is what we can now surmise, since promises to Fifa are broken on pain of public disembowelment.
Local hero Danny Jordaan, along with other members of SA’s 2010 Organising Committee, apparently risked such a fate last week, pledging to deliver the new stadium in answer to various Fifa concerns. Then they told the rest of us of this grand plan, which hadn’t featured in any of their previous statements or proposals.
The stadium’s presence means that Cape Town will be able to host matches beyond the tournament’s preliminary rounds, when the crowds get bigger and the burden on a city’s infrastructure is more demanding. From Fifa’s perspective, this makes sense: Cape Town has the most accommodation of any SA city, and is among the easiest to get around in. It’s only hindrance to becoming a major host city for the Cup has been the lack of a facility of the necessary size. (Our other stadia, such as at Newlands and Athlone, are world-class but too small.)
Now, thanks to Fifa’s practicality, that problem has been solved, and Cape Town gets an extra two weeks of soccer. Otherwise – out with those bowels!
- Here is the full list of stadia for the 2010 Cup:
New Stadia
- Polokwane (a.k.a. Pietersburg), Limpopo Province (on the site of the current Peter Mokaba stadium)
- Mbombela, Mpumalanga Province
- Nelson Mandela Metropole (a.k.a. Port Elizabeth)
- Durban (on the site of the current King’s Park stadium)
- Cape Town (near the site of the current Green Point stadium)
Upgraded Stadia
- Johannesburg – Soweto (FNB stadium – “Soccer City”)
- Johannesburg – northern suburbs (Ellis Park stadium)
- Pretoria (Loftus Versfeld stadium)
- Rustenberg, North West Province (Royal Bafokeng stadium)
- Mangaung (a.k.a. Bloemfontein), Free State Province (Vodacom Park stadium)