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Saturday 23 January saw a landmark in Cape Town's preparation for the World Cup 2010 as it hosted its first football fixture at the Brand new Cape Town (Green point) Stadium.

20 000 soccer fans filled into the lower tier of the new Green point stadium as the city did its first dress rehearsal for the new World Cup Stadium. Costing R4.5 Billion to construct, the stadium is designed to hold 68 000 adoring fans and is intended to host a diverse array of events from differing sports to Music concerts. The rehearsal attempted to mimic as much of these as possible with Santos taking on Ajax in a Cape Town Derby (friendly) and Freshly-ground performing their latest single.

Traffic access was intentionally limited and it seems the day passed on successfully. Fans walked in to the Stadium vicinity, while others utilised pre-paid parking to get to the event, a system that seemed to work smoothly without congesting the area on a beautifully sunny Saturday. The only unhappy reports from those walking in was that the horses patrolling the streets had ‘done so many number 2’s on the pavement’ that they had to be sidestepped along the way.

 

Photo by Warrenski

Photo by Warrenski

The soccer was short of inspiring, with no goals scored and Santos winning on penalties, however the day as a whole has to be seen as a huge success. Organisers are hoping to use this as an annual event. My thoughts are ‘what’s the point’? Rather host competitive PSL fixtures so the games are more exciting and carry meaning. The excitement about this friendly was that it was everyone’s first experience of the stadium. Will it sell out for a friendly again next year? I’m not convinced.

With the first test down, and a Rugby fixture between the Stormers and Boland XI next on the agenda, we look on optimistically at our ability to host this World Class event.

Photos by Warrenski