Construction on a world class 35,000-seater stadium is expected to start in East London before the end of the year.

The planned multi-purpose venue will be used for the 2010 soccer World Cup warm-up games and for other major sporting events to be held in the city from 2009, according to Buffalo City's 2010 soccer World Cup convenor Fudukile Mbovane.

The project will go ahead despite Buffalo City's failure to be among the 10 host cities for the 2010 World Cup.

"We are working on a long-term investment ... We have a professional team here but we do not have a venue big enough to accommodate the likes of Kaizer Chiefs when they come to play Bush Bucks. It is an embarrassment for a city like Buffalo City not to have a sporting facility for major events," he said.

"We also have Super 14 games to be played in East London, so it makes sense to build a big multi-purpose stadium.

"In the past, we only talked about it, but now we will actually deliver our promise to the people," he said. The costing would be released soon.

Bubele Mfenyana, chairperson of the Provincial Co-ordinating Committee (PCC) also confirmed that the new stadium was going ahead.

"The overall strategy is to develop infrastructure in all these areas and East London is one of our main areas of focus. BCM is currently making plans to build a first-class stadium to meet the required standards."

Plans to build a stadium in Mthatha for 2010 were also at an advanced stage, Mfenyana said. "Mthatha is moving very fast. They are currently in the process of advertising tenders and I'm very happy about their progress," he said. "Only Buffalo City has not submitted its final plans and we are waiting for them."

Mbovane was disappointed Buffalo City had failed to become a 2010 host city, but he was optimistic that the city would be a base camp for a top team during the tournament.

In the Eastern Cape, only Port Elizabeth got the nod from Fifa and the South African Football Association for host city status.

A 50,000-capacity seater stadium is to be built in Port Elizabeth, with 10,000 temporary stands, to make a total capacity of 60,000.

Mbovane said: "Of course we were disappointed but we are still focused on bringing something to Buffalo City. We want people from this area also to benefit from the tournament.

"Currently, we are busy trying to put together a bid book to both Safa and Fifa so that we can be given first preference when they allocate teams during the tournament."

Buffalo City's aspirations of hosting the games were dashed when 2010 Local Organising Committee chief executive Danny Jordaan told the East Cape sports indaba in East London that BC would not be considered.

Jordaan said Buffalo City's hopes of hosting the event "died when the late former Buffalo City deputy mayor, Des Halley passed away".

It was later revealed that Buffalo City "forgot" to submit their bid book in time to be considered.

Daily Dispatch
 
Publisher: I-Net Bridge
Source: I-Net Bridge