At last, I was there – walking into the Moses Mabhida Stadium where I could see the progress – it is breathtaking. Yes, this will be Durban’s football Stadium, but it will truly be a landmark, a must see attraction for visitors too.
And why would visitors want to spend their time at our 2010 World Cup Stadium?
Well, I know, I will take everyone to the 2010 Stadium because I have watched it from before it even happened. I watched them demolish the old soccer stadium and clear the ground and then begin with this one.
Moses Mabhida 2010 Stadium
I will also take my visitors to the Moses Mabhida Stadium because it will have shops and art galleries and restaurants and that amazing 350 m arch – well on the one side one can go up in a kind of cable car to a viewing platform (106 m above the pitch) and the other, with a harness, climb the stairs. And from here, you can see spectacular panoramic views over the ocean and the city. Half way up will be some kind of swing – I guess like a cross between a trapeze and a bungee, that the brave and daring can swing out over the stadium.
But coming back to the present, I visited the Moses Mabhida Stadium with City Manager Dr Michael Sutcliffe, International Relations head honcho Eric Appelgren and his right hand Shelley Gielink and a delegation from Durban’s Sister City’s – here for the annual Celebrate Durban week..
Multi Coloured Seating and Turf
Although the building is still going on all around, one can see that things are being finished off. The multi-coloured seats (with plenty of legroom) are in and the special turf has been laid.
According to the Durban 2010 website, because the pitch is designed to accommodate various sports played during different seasons, two types of grasses will be installed: Warm Season and Cool Season.
Pitch Design
The pitch has been design and built by Ibhola Lethu Consortium (ILC), which has been responsible for the pitch design at Coca-Cola Park (formerly Ellis Park Stadium), Johannesburg’s Soccer City, and the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth, among others.
The Moses Mabhida (aka Durban Football or Soccer Stadium) Stadium will seat 70 000 roaring fans for the FIFA 2010 World Cup™, with 54 000 seats in its normal mode. It has the potential to expand to 85/90 000 seats to meet the requirements of large-scale events like the Olympic Games.
Fred Hatman Also Visited the Moses Mabhida Stadium
My friend, Fred Hatman also visited the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Friday. He is such a great writer; here is just a short extract from his post titled A Golden Day at Durban’s 2010 World Cup Stadium … in 2019.
“My mind fast-forwarded to June 2010 and the lip-smacking prospect of watching the likes of Steven Gerrard, Kaka and Lionel Messi perform their wizardry right here in the middle of Durban. My eyes glistened and closed and then I was strangely transported beyond this to a day in 2019. It is the 25th anniversary of South Africa’s first democratic government and a tribute match is being played right here, right before my very eyes, in Durban’s World Cup stadium, now nine years old.
Moses Mabhida glowed bleach-white in the sub-tropical sunshine and the sky-sweeping arch continued to oversee the vibrancy and energy of our beautiful game. I was craning my head over the bouncing mass of the full-house crowd, trying to get a view of the world’s finest footballers celebrating the birth of the still-new South Africa.”
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