Green Point to cost R1.2bn

2006-02-07 14:38

Cape Town - The proposed all-weather stadium to be built at Green Point in Cape Town ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup will cost about R1.2bn, a city official said on Tuesday.

The City of Cape Town's chief operating officer, Rushj Lehutso was speaking to reporters after central government announced that five new stadiums would be built for the event.

Lehutso said the R1.2bn was a preliminary figure from quantity surveyors for the cost of the 68 000 seater stadium alone, and did not include associated infrastructure such as roads, or the plan to develop a world class inner city park on the surrounding Green Point Common.

World Cup infrastructure

Western Cape premier Ebrahim Rasool said national government had allocated money for World Cup infrastructure, and the province and city would also look at their own budgets.

These were the three "logical sources" of funding for the stadium.

He also said the stadium could be the "deposit" on the city's ambitions for a future Olympic Games.

Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad, who is a member of South Africa's World Cup Local Organising Committee (LOC), said the stadium identified as Cape Town's premier venue for the World Cup at the time South Africa made its bid had been Newlands.

Athlone stadium can't go beyond 45 000

Since then there had been a great deal of discussion with soccer governing body Fifa.

There were many who had wanted the Athlone stadium to take the honours, but to host a semi-final a stadium had to seat at least 65 000, and there was "no way" Athlone could go beyond 45 000.

Newlands also had capacity problems, he said.

Essop added that though the LOC had not yet taken a decision on allocation of semi-finals, Cape Town had a lot of the infrastructure required to host one.

Rasool said the R165m budget for the upgrading of Athlone, which could be used for World Cup warm-up friendlies and as a training ground, remained intact.

Deputy Sport Minister Gert Oosthuizen said on Monday the new stadium would include a dome that could be closed in bad weather.

The five new stadiums would be owned by municipalities.

- SAPA