The Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium is a soccer and rugby union stadium in Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It hosted 2010 FIFA World Cup matches, including the third-place play off. It is the home of Chippa United Football Club and formerly of rugby union team Southern Kings.
The five-tier, R2 billion (approximately $159 million) Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium was built overlooking the North End Lake, at the heart of the city, one of three coastal stadiums built to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It regularly hosts large-scale rugby union and soccer matches. The stadium has also been used as a concert venue.
The city of Port Elizabeth did not have a large-scale soccer facility, as under the apartheid government, soccer was not given much funding. Soccer clubs in the city had to make use of smaller scale venues throughout the city. Before this stadium was built, most large soccer matches were played at the EPRU Stadium, the city's rugby ground. The EPRU Stadium was often problematic for soccer, as it normally hosts rugby matches, thus the playing surface was not of a great standard. When Port Elizabeth was chosen as a host city for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the city decided against upgrading the EPRU Stadium. This was because it would have needed to be almost completely rebuilt in order to meet FIFA requirements. The city then decided on building a brand new, multipurpose stadium.
Inevitably, there was a great deal of speculation about the status of stadium construction in the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, with the requirement that all the FIFA World Cup host stadiums had to be completed by January 2010. The Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium was the first of five new stadiums to start construction. The other new stadiums are in Cape Town, Durban, Polokwane and Nelspruit.
The stadium is named after the administrative district in which the stadium is located, the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, itself named after Nelson Mandela (1918–2013), the former President of South Africa. The Nelson Mandela Bay area is made up of the city of Port Elizabeth, the towns of Uitenhage and Despatch, as well as smaller settlements.
The stadium is sometimes incorrectly called the 'Nelson Mandela Stadium' in the media. This may lead to confusion, as there is a Nelson Mandela Stadium in Kampala, Uganda. It is also sometimes mistakenly claimed that the stadium is named after Mandela, rather than the metropolitan area named in his honour.
The stadium was designed by the Department of Public Works' National Construction Week Programme in 2006 with student from Holy Cross High School Thina Dlulane, Yandisa Dalamba, Inga Ngalonkulu and Siyabonga Nyezi form Umtata. Their design that was reviewed in the Mahlamba Ndlopfu Presidency House by the Public Work delegates and was the winning designed prototype concept and was the inspiration behind the design.[4]The stadium has a unique roof-structure and views over the North End Lake. The roof is made up of a series of white 'petals' making it look like a flower. This is the reason for the stadium's nickname, The Protea. The stadium building is approximately 40m high and consists of six levels on the western side in addition to five on each of the north, south and east stands.[1] The main architecture was handled by Architectural Design Associates(Pty)Ltd and Dominic Bonnesse Architects cc. The stadium has three gates for entry, located on the northern, southern and eastern sides of the stadium, the western side of the stadium leads to the North End Lake. The 3 gates are: gate A-B, in Milner Avenue, gate B-C, in Prince Alfred Road, and gate C-D, in Fettes Road.[5]
The stadium seats 46,000 in addition to 4,000 extra seats temporarily installed for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The seats are of different shades, from light orange to dark red. They are arranged seemingly at random, but this was done to help the stadium appear full at all times. It also means that sun damage is less of a problem and replaced seats are less noticeable. The stadium boasts 49 hospitality suites, two business lounges, a gymnasium, and lecture and function rooms. There are also two conference rooms situated on the first level, which are able to accommodate 200 people.
There are four ramps for easy wheelchair access, three VIP/VVIP lifts, two in the West Stand and one in the East Stand, as well as four service lifts, two on the west and two on the east of the stadium. Four additional lifts are planned for the legacy phase. There are 32 turnstiles and colour-coded gates on level 2 for spectators to access their seats and four ramps leading up from level 2 to level 5.
Two big viewing screens (12.7m x 7.2m) were installed for live coverage of the activities on the field. There are a total of 74 toilet blocks – 36 blocks on level 2 – 4 blocks on level 3 – 14 blocks on level 4 and 20 blocks on level 5.
Parking inside the stadium is provided across five parking zones, providing a total of 500 parking spaces utilised by working staff, anchor tenants, event organisers and hospitality guests.
The playing surface was made of natural grass that was grown off site, in the St Albans area. The areas surrounding the pitch are made of artificial turf.[1] The field that was originally laid was a mixture of kikuyu grass and rye grass, but for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the field was made up completely of rye grass.
Following the World Cup, a Desso GrassMaster system was installed, due to the high workload of hosting both soccer and rugby matches.[6]
The field was designed to be able to accommodate both soccer and rugby. The pitch is maintained by a group of 5 people, who work day and night to ensure the quality of the playing surface. A lighting system is used to ensure that all grass on the pitch grows properly. A unit with 6 1,000 watt bulbs is used to help certain parts of the pitch covered by shadow due to the stadium roof.[7]
For soccer, the field is marked at the FIFA approved dimensions of 105m by 68m. For rugby the field is marked at 100 m long by 70 m wide, it also has two 10 m by 70 m 'in-goal areas' behind the posts.
The stadium's construction was handled by a consortium made up of Ibhayi JV. It was built on the site of the old Parks Rugby Club, and the Prince Alfred Park.
The roof material of the stadium consists of a combination of aluminium cladding, combined with a membrane material called polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), which is a coated glass-fibre fabric and steel superstructure. This tensile structure was supplied and installed by an Australian company. The total length of piles installed is 21,000 m and the material excavated is 138,000 m3.
The local building industry has benefitted a great deal due to the construction of the stadium. The implementation of this huge, fast track project has introduced several local role players to a new scale of development which will be beneficial to the local construction industry now and the future. The construction process has also included extensive use of local suppliers and experts in conjunction with international specialists, ensuring that adequate skills transfer take place.
An estimated total of 6,800 jobs were created throughout the process and the development of the stadium was expected to result in the upliftment and urban renewal of the surrounding residential and commercial area of North End and the major routes leading to the stadium. It was hoped the stadium would bring vast social and economic opportunities, during and after the World Cup.[8]
Original estimates put the cost of the stadium at R895 million, of which the city of Port Elizabeth would have been expected to pay R 95 million.[9] This was part of an informal agreement on World Cup stadium funding, whereby local municipalities would cover 10% of costs, provincial government 20% and national treasury would cover the other 70%.[9]
As with other World Cup stadia in South Africa, construction costs for the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium spiralled substantially. It increased from the June 2006 estimated cost of R 711 million, to R 1.5 billion in May 2008, and finally the completed cost of R 2.065 billion.[9] The stadium eventually cost R 2.1 billion to build, of which the city has already paid R 336 million, and may still be laible to pay a shortfall of R 261 million.[9] However, if the shortfalls are calculated based on the 10-20-70 split, then the national government may still owes the city R 70.5 million and provincial government R 191 million.[9] National treasury has so far contributed R 1.375 billion, or 66.5% of the stadium's cost.[9] Despite this, national treasury has stated that they will not forward more funds to World Cup stadiums.
It appears as though Port Elizabeth residents may make up the shortfall through larger rates increases. There will be an extra 2% increase in property rates, an extra 1% increase in water tariffs and sanitation and refuse rates, as well as an extra 4% increase in electricity tariffs.[9]
The stadium's running costs are estimated to be R18 million per year. As of 2010, the stadiums operating company, Access Facilities and Leisure Management, expected to break even by 2012.[10]
The Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium is the home ground to EP Kings, Southern Kings and Chippa United. The Southern Kings were part of the Super Rugby Competition in 2013 but were later relegated.
The stadium has also hosted Springbok test matches and Bafana Bafana matches. The stadium hosted the 2011 Tri Nations match between the Springboks and New Zealand.[11]
In 2011 the stadium hosted a leg of the Vodacom Challenge,[12] as it did in 2009. A crowd of 45,800 attended to watch the showdown between the country's top two PSL teams.
The South African leg of the IRB Sevens World Series was up for tender in late 2010, and the Eastern Province Rugby Union announced an intention to host the event.[13] The South African government also gave its backing to Port Elizabeth hosting the event.[14] Ultimately, SARU announced that Port Elizabeth had won the bidding for hosting rights, and would hold the event at the stadium from 2011 forward.[15]
The stadium was one of the host venues for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations. South Africa had originally bid to host the 2015 edition[16] and had won rights to the 2017 edition. However, the Libyan Civil War in 2011 led that country, which initially won 2013 hosting rights, to swap dates with South Africa. The stadium would also be used in future bids for South Africa to host the Rugby World Cup.
The stadium is located along the city's new BRT network. Currently, the dedicated lanes for the buses have been built. Once completed, the BRT buses will ferry people to and from the stadium during game days. The main bus station servicing the stadium will be located in Harrower Road. There will be routes to the stadium from the airport, fan park and the beach front. In addition to the BRT network, there will be a number of 'park and ride' areas. These will be located at King's Beach, St George's Park and Andrew Rabie High School. There will also be a 'park and walks' from Cilliè High School and Dr Viljoen Primary School. There will also be match day train services to the North End train station, which is located about 1.3 km from the stadium.[17]
While the network is still being built, the Algoa Bus Company has set up temporary bus stops in the surrounding streets. These are used on game days, to provide public transport until the completion of the BRT network.
Within the stadium area is a park, left over from the old Prince Alfred Park. The park is used for small-scale outdoor concerts.[18]
The stadium was originally planned to be one of five venues to be utilised in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, and the only new stadium in the event. The other four stadiums to be used were Ellis Park Stadium, Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Royal Bafokeng Stadium and Free State Stadium. The four stadiums were already built and merely received upgrades for the Confederations Cup.
On 8 July 2008 it was announced that the stadium had been removed from the list of stadiums for the 2009 Confederations Cup as it was believed it would not be ready on time.[19] Surprisingly, however, it became the first newly built 2010 stadium to be completed.[20]
The stadium hosted eight games during the 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament. It hosted five group games, as well as a round of 16 game, a quarterfinal and the 3rd/4th playoff.[21]
The stadium's games were:[22]