New financial ball game as rugby supports stadium

[caption id="attachment_35460" align="alignright" width="405"] SOCCER FEVER: Ghana supporters at the clash between Cape Verde and Ghana at the NMB stadium, which Ghana won 2-0. Picture: EUGENE COETZEE[/caption]

A WORLD-CLASS stadium built to accommodate football fever has had to rely on rugby to make the R2.1-billion investment worthwhile.

The Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium was the first to be completed nationally for the 2010 World Cup, in a mere 33 months, and opened in June 2009.

The billions spent resulted in a prestigious 46000-seater stadium, six levels high. It went on to win a South Africa Engineering Excellence Award in 2010.

"The stadium has a good reputation as it is player-centric, although we will admit there is still a lot to be done.

"We have to work towards being a sustainable, community-orientated, multipurpose stadium – which is why we are hoping to have a PSL team use it as their home venue for the next PSL," Access Management chief executive Chantal du Pisani said. - Tremaine van Aardt and Riaan Marais