What’s in a name? A lot, if the outcry over the renaming of South Africa’s sports stadiums is anything to go by
Gavin Foster
Down in the Last Outpost the boykies take their heritage seriously. Remember the outcry a few years ago when the powers-that-be opted to ditch the Banana Boys appellation in favour of the Sharks?
That finally settled itself reasonably amicably, but scarcely had the dust settled when banking giant Absa stepped in and drop kicked Kings Park into touch. For a reputed R15-million the Natal Rugby Union agreed that the stadium they’d developed on leased council land would be known as the Absa stadium, Durban, for the next five years.
“We felt absolutely cheated, that we were losing our identity,” says George Laas of the Natal Rugby Supporters Club, whose clubhouse is still listed in the Durban telephone directory as being located at “Kings Park”.
“We accepted the Sharks name when rugby went professional, but we’re still arguing against the Absa thing. We felt that it could maybe have been “the Absa stadium, Kings Park”. Kings Park got its name from a nearby railway station where it was once customary for visiting British monarchs to alight from their royal coaches upon arrival in Durban.
“It’s been a bastion, and part of the history of the British Empire. We loved the name it’s got so much depth to it and it belongs to us.”
Well, maybe it once did, but Absa now owns the rights to the name of the Sharks’s home ground, and has done for more than a year.
The Kings Park grumbling was only just beginning to subside when the Natal Cricket Union (NCU) announced late last year that it was negotiating to sell the naming rights for Kingsmead to East Coast Radio.
Traditionalists will be pleased to hear that the local radio station has apparently been dismissed without scoring. NCU head Cassim Docrat says that the first stumbling block came about when the bidders insisted that the word Kingsmead be entirely excluded; the proposed name was the “East Coast Arena”. Besides that, the offer was for a paltry R600 000 cash and R400 000 airtime on East Coast Radio, and internationally renowned cricket stadiums don’t come that cheap.
“We’ve looked at the offer, but aren’t entirely happy with the numbers,” says Docrat, who’d no doubt heard what the Natal Rugby Union had pocketed. “We’ll continue negotiating with East Coast and also look at other avenues. We’re mindful of the sentiments expressed in the media and from clubs and fans who’re concerned about the name being changed, and we’ve decided that we won’t plunge into it if we don’t get what we want.”
So does it just hinge on money? Is the lady a whore who’s just trying to up the price?
I asked Docrat if R5-million would be sufficient to get the historic cricket ground renamed the “Chappies Bubblegum stadium,” for instance.
“Ja. We’ve said that if the money was right, and that was what somebody wanted, that’s what they’d get.” That’s that maiden bowled over.
The rush to sell their heritage isn’t restricted to KwaZulu-Natal, and sports writers around the country are scratching their heads as they try to sort out what’s what.
Loftus Versfeld is now Minolta Loftus, and Centurion Park cricket stadium is now Supersport Centurion. Paarl’s Boland Park became Boland Bank Park until BOE took over Boland Bank, and the name now looks like reverting. The hallowed fields of Newlands were summarily renamed Norwich Park before becoming Fedsure Park, Newlands. Now Investec has taken over Fedsure so nobody’s quite sure what’s going to happen next.
Boet Erasmus stadium in Port Elizabeth is now Telkom Park, which sounds like a post-office workers’ hostel, but Ellis Park, thankfully, has resisted all overtures to sell off its heritage. “It’s one of those things that we at Golden Lions regard as sacrosanct,” says Lions CEO Jomo King. “We’d have to be pushed very hard to consider a name change. It would be almost like changing South African rugby history.”
Cricket history comes cheaper, if the commercialised names of the teams playing at the highest national level are any indication. Boland Cricket Board now manages All Gold Boland, and the Border Cricket Board quite seriously manages the Mercedes-Benz Border Bears. Further inland fans can watch Goodyear Free State Eagles taking on the De Beers Griqua Diamonds.
Soon all that’s going to be left to offer for sale will be the players’ names. Just imagine. Coca-Cola Klusener, Durex Dippennaar and Joost Fanta Westhuizen. I can hardly wait.