The City of Cape Town is eager to have the Western Province Rugby Union as the anchor tenant of the Cape Town Stadium.
Sport24
According to Thursday’s Cape Times, the City and WP will renew talks about the union moving from Newlands to Cape Town Stadium with a three-day meeting next month.
The workshop will take place from 11 to 13 February.
Mayoral committee member for tourism, events and marketing, Grant Pascoe, said it would ‘make the most logical sense for us’ if WP became the anchor tenant of the underutilised stadium that was built for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
However, WP Rugby Union president Thelo Wakefield said they remain sceptical about a possible move.
He said the stadium was still ‘an unknown factor’ for them.
Wakefield said any move to Cape Town Stadium would be a ‘commercial and business decision’ and that they need to know what it will cost if they take over the role of anchor tenant or hirer.
A major issue for WP is the shortage of suites at Cape Town Stadium.
Newlands boast around 300 suites compared to about 100 at Cape Town Stadium. Wakefield said it would need to be determined how much it would cost to build more suites as they have contractual obligations to their suite holders.
Same old arguements about suites and service providers.
Fact remains that if WP want to continue hosting international matches in the not too distant future, they’ll either have to move or demolish Newlands and re-build it.
According to a VERY RELIABLE contact that I have, it can’t be upgraded any more to keep in line with international standards.
Same applies to Kings Park.
Loftus and Ellis Park have perhaps another 10 years before they’ll be in the same situation.