Soccer City

The city of Durban is not just well known for its beautiful beaches, warm accommodating weather and friendly people but it is also famous for its crazy soccer lovers and its beautiful stadiums. To add to the flair of a soccer loving city, Durban has delighted its fans by building a state of the art stadium that is named after the apartheid hero Moses Mabida. This state of the art Building is going to be the crown jewel not only for Durban but for Africa as a whole since it is the first of its kind. Its design consists of a grand arch representing a unity of its sporting nation. The two legs of the arch on the southern side of the stadium come together to form a single footing on the northern side, symbolizing the new unity of a once-divided country. This will bring back the culture of a loving soccer city and province that was once evident when the great Amazulu F.C and Golden Arrows were formed during the apartheid regime. The 2010 world cup will contribute towards Durban and Kwa- Zulu Natal as a whole in making this city the number one world holiday destination.

There were a number of problems that were encounted during the process of consructing the Moses Mabhida stadium for 2010 in Durban. One issue was the cost of it. There were risk factors, deadlines that had to be met and its construction was also seen as a part threat.

The total price of constructing the stadium was R2.6 billion, the price of the arch roof alone was R448 million. One has to question: was all this spending really necessary? The construction of the roof arch was seen as a risk as it wasn’t easy to get it to be the way it was planned to be when one considers the technicality of it. If it was seen as a high risk factor, why then go ahead and construct it? Those concerned with the construction of this stadium were not sure if it was going to be done on time. The existence of this stadium also poses as a part threat to the Sharks ABSA stadium because the question is that whether the Sharks stay in their home stadium or whether they would then move into the Moses Mabhida stadium after it’s completion.

What should have been a beneficial experience for both locals of Mbambela including world visitors to the area, has become a nightmare altogether. As South Africans we are well aware of the controversy that surrounds the building of most of the stadia in order to host fixtures in the different provinces. One the most talked about stadium problems so far has been the Mpumalanga-Nelspruit “Mbambela” stadium.

The whole saga has left a somewhat bitter taste in the locals of Nelspruit’s mouths. What has been happening so far is that the construction of the stadium has disrupted learning for the local children; to the point that they shut down and destroyed the school and built the learners a temporary school, of which the quality is very poor (they had classes of 66 students in them). The students were outraged by all of this and wanted to be heard, so they protested. This protest led to the destruction of the temporary building of the school and the many arrests of the students that were present in the protest. What is so outraging about this is that the students were beaten in order for them to give up the names of other people that were at the protest. What is most disturbing about this story is that most of these students’ lives have changed forever. They will be finishing high school soon and most want to further their education to a tertiary level; this has become compromised because they now have criminal records. Their futures are now hanging in the balance.

The next bit of controversy was that the locals were told that they would have to evacuate the area temporarily while the games were hosted in the area because it would not look good if there were “these kinds of people around”. This has totally thrown the locals into a state of panic and resented feelings towards the success of the World Cup 2010. These people that are expected to welcome the rest of the world with open arms have to suffer to the point of leaving their homes, homes that their parents have lived in and there parents, parents, whole generations are expected to leave a home just like that.Although I am pretty sure that there has been a lot that has happened since, it is very clear that the people of the area of Mbambela are not in support of the World Cup and could not care less if the powers-that-be were to just stop all this construction so that everything can go back to normal. We will wait and see in 8 months what this has all come too.

Cape Town was one of the cities chosen to house a brand new soccer stadium for the 2010 Soccer World Cup next year. This amazing facility is able to seat a massive 70 000 capacity crowd! It is situated on the site of the old Green Point track near the existing stadium. Green Point Stadium is one of two semi-final venues for the FIFA world cup. This multi-purpose venue is also going to be used for major events and concerts.

In all, over 2 500 workers have been employed so far on the project which is estimated to cost R4,5 billion of which over R1 billion is site-specific costs. The architectural design was done by Germany’s GMP Architects, in association with local architects Louis Karol and Point. The roof is specifically designed to minimize environmental impact by aiding in sound insulation from the cheering fans and trapping in the floodlights so as to not be seen from the surrounding areas. After the World Cup, the stadium’s seating will be reduced from 70 000 – the number of seats stipulated by FIFA – to 55 000, the optimal number for a stadium of this type. The stadium is over 70% complete at this stage.

All this work and only two hours have been lost to load shedding…