Durban’s Absa Stadium — the home of the Super 14 Shark franchise — could become a tennis stadium or part of a ”high-performance centre”, it was announced on Saturday.
Julie-May Ellingson, head of strategic projects at the eThekwini municipality, said the plan is for the 2010 Moses Mabhida Stadium to host rugby, soccer and athletics.
Speaking at a press conference at the International Convention Centre in Durban, she said negotiations are continuing with the Sharks to get them to move to the Moses Mabhida Stadium, which is currently under construction.
While no final decision has been made, the area in which the Absa Stadium is located would be a high-performance centre that could be turned into a sports academy and a sports science centre, she said.
The plan is for Absa Stadium to be ”downscaled” and possibly become a tennis stadium.
Currently Durban’s main tennis stadium — West Ridge Stadium — is on the other side of the city, several kilometres away from the city’s planned sports precinct.
”Negotiations [with the Sharks] are going very well. We’re offering the Sharks a world-class stadium,” Ellingson said.
She pointed out that the Absa Stadium (formerly Kings Park Rugby Stadium) is 65 years old, but that any decision for the Sharks to move is theirs.
Feasibility studies on the high-performance centre are being conducted.
Referring to the construction of the Moses Mabhida Stadium, she said that all the material from the demolished Kings Park Soccer Stadium has been reused in the building of the new stadium.
Earlier in the day, Ellingson, KwaZulu-Natal Premier S’bu Ndebele, Durban city manager Mike Sutcliffe and Durban mayor Obed Mlaba accompanied Fifa president Sepp Blatter on a visit to the Moses Mabhida Stadium.
Blatter received an enthusiastic welcome from construction workers — who less than a week ago were engaged in a strike for improved performance bonuses, better safety conditions and better working conditions for subcontractors.
Blatter said: ”One can feel the emotion of the people. It is an African kick-off.”
Sutcliffe said that all workers who had worked on the construction of the stadium would have their name immortalised in a ”people’s park” that would list all the workers’ names. — Sapa