Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium clubs in bid for additional R3.4m

After recently forking out R18-million to help struggling professional sports clubs in Nelson Mandela Bay, the municipality wants to dig even deeper into its pockets to provide more help.

The city wants to incur the costs of hosting soccer and rugby matches at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium for Chippa United, the EP Kings and Southern Kings home games.

The move comes as the teams are battling to keep up with the costs of paying for extra security, medics, cleaners, floodlights and standby electricians and technicians, among other things.

In a report to the sports, recreation, arts and culture portfolio committee, which meets tomorrow, executive director Noxolo Nqwazi said the costs per match ranged from R92 000 to R340 000.

She wants the portfolio committee to give the municipality the go-ahead to incur the match-hosting costs for Chippa United, EP Kings and Southern Kings. This could cost about R3.4-million extra for the financial year. She proposed, however, that the costs not exceed R5-million, which is the budget available for stadium operations.

In June, the council approved that Chippa United, EP Kings and EP Warriors be paid out R6-million each for the development of sport.