FEA TURE — MOSES M ABHID A
ST ADIU M
US$1.5m investment in a Sport Medical Centre soon. This medical centre will be an added-value to the sports pre- cinct that we are trying to establish and of which Moses Mabhida stadium is an integral part.” More recently the stadium was converted into a race-
track to host the Top Gear show that is run by the pro- ducers of the BBC’s television programme, Top Gear. But the city has also learnt the hard way what it takes
to operate a multifunctional stadium, as Ellingson advised: “We have come to the conclusion that retailers don’t tender for floor space in a stadium. But as a munici- pality we are obliged to publish a tender according to the Municipal Financial Management Act, so there is clearly a misalignment between the demands by the law and the demands by the market.”
Anchor Tenant Secured Apart from a Twenty20 cricket match at the start of 2011 and the aforementioned Top Gear show, soccer has con- tinued to be the main sport played at Moses Mabhida stadium since the World Cup, as Ellingson explained: “We signed up local football club, AmaZulu, as an anchor ten- ant, while the second Premiership football club in our province, Golden Arrows, uses the stadium for all of its bigger matches.” Although the agreements sound promising, attend-
ance figures for soccer matches have fallen sharply after ticket prices increased at the start of the season. The reduced attendance figures have placed the operators of the stadium under even more pressure. To add insult to injury, soccer league organisers seem
to be making matters worse for stadium managers across South Africa. “We find it very frustrating that the league still doesn’t sell tickets that are linked to a seat. That
20 th AN N I V ER S AR Y P AR T II/ S U M M ER 1 2
makes it very difficult for us to predict how much stock or staff we should have in certain parts of the venue. It is also very difficult to control the crowd or provide suffi- cient entertainment. What is even worse is that we will have to deal with arguments or even fights that break out when people arrive at the stadium and find other people having taken their seats. It is time that the league comes to the table, as this makes it unnecessarily diffi- cult for us to operate the stadium.”
No White Elephant Ellingson has no fear the stadium will become a white elephant, despite having the iconic ‘Shark Tank’ stadium right next door, as she highlighted: “We received a lot of criticism when we decided to build a new stadium for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. We invited the Sharks rugby club to participate in discussions and the planning about the new stadium, hoping that they would move to Moses Mabhida stadium after the World Cup. But they didn’t feel the need to participate as they still have a lease on their stadium until 2052. “However, what they forget is that in 2013 a new Act
will come into place in South Africa in which ‘safety at venues’ and ‘safety requirements’ are clearly defined. Moses Mabhida stadium was designed with the Act in mind. But the existing Shark Tank does not comply and it will cost the rugby club some serious money if they want to make the venue compliant. They can, however, move to the stadium immediately should they decide to adopt Moses Mabhida as their home ground. We have sufficient capacity for hospitality suites and we could even expand when required by adding another tier of suits on the top tier. We also decided to install individual baths in the
P AN S T AD I A 32
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