Soccer City to cost R30m per year
The new 90 000-seater Soccer City, built for the 2010 World Cup finals, will cost between R25 and R30 million per year to maintain.
That will not be a problem, according to Barry Pollen, a
director of National Stadium Management SA (Pty) Limited, the
company which will manage the stadium.
A subsidiary of National Stadiums, Stadium Management SA have
the contract to manage Orlando Stadium, Dobsonville and the Rand
Stadiums.
There are fears that some -- if not all -- of the new purpose-built stadiums for the recent 2010 World Cup would become white
elephants.
"Not Soccer City," Pollen told Sapa this week.
“Soccer City will more than pay for itself. We have already
secured 27 events for the stadium this year -- and that is not
counting the matches we staged here during the World Cup.
"We will have no problem in finding the R2 million plus per
month to successfully run this venue and that goes for Orlando,
Rand and Dobsonville Stadiums.”
Top PSL outfit Orlando Pirates will use Orlando Stadium as
their home ground, Kaizer Chiefs are expected to utilise the Rand
Stadium for home matches this season and Moroka Swallows will
continue to play at Dobsonville, as they did last season, for all
their home fixtures.
Pollen explained that the R2 million plus per month expenses cover
not just the running of the stadium, but making sure the pitch and
the interior of the stadium will always be in top condition.
Pollen said Soccer City has become a multi-purpose venue and has
been booked for more than just soccer matches.
“We have the Telkom Charity Cup here on Saturday and 90 000
tickets have been sold for this annual Premier Soccer League season
opener. We have booked the stadium for rugby matches, concerts,
cultural and church events.
"We will also use Soccer City for conferences, birthday parties
and other corporate events. There is no fear that Soccer City will
become a white elephant. All news stadiums are built nowadays as multi-purpose venues.”
A judgement on the naming of Soccer City is expected to be made
in the High Court on Thursday.
As far as the other new stadiums are concerned -- Cape Town,
Moses Mabhida in Durban, Nelson Mandela Bay, Mbombela in Nelspruit
and the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane -- problems await.
Pollen, whose company is not involved in the management of these
stadiums, did not want to comment on their feasability, but other
sources told Sapa it will be almost impossible to manage them
profitably.
Cape Town, Moses Mabhida and Nelson Mandela Bay Stadiums will
need about R20 million per year to maintain, while the others will
cost between R10 and R12 million per year to run.
The PSL are trying to stage double headers at the new stadium in
Greenpoint, but the Cape-based clubs, Ajax Cape Town, Santos and
newly promoted Vasco da Gama, attract only a handful of fans for
home matches and unless somebody gets a brain wave or has a magic
wand, that venue could be a white elephant, as could the new Durban
Stadium which, like Cape Town, does not have big PSL clubs to fill
it each week.
Neither Nelspruit nor Polokwane have PSL teams in that region
and unless the PSL or the South African Football Association come
up with a plan to use those venues, they could prove to be very
costly to maintain.
A former World Cup host, South Korea, was forced to bulldoze
some stadiums built for the 2002 event after they found it cheaper
to demolish than maintain them.
