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Green Point Stadium
One of the most artistic football venues in
South Africa, the newly-built Green Point Stadium is
situated in one of the much sought-after areas in the city
of Cape Town. Green Point Stadium is one of the two
semi-final venues for the FIFA World Cup™.
This multi-purpose venue is also going to be used to stage
major events and concerts. Fans will be a stone's throw from
the ocean and the mountains of Cape Town will also provide
the backdrop for matches. The location is ideal as it is a
short walk from the transportation hub of the city. The new
stadium has been partly built on land that was previously
used as a golf course.
The stadium, which has an exterior that is covered with
noise-reducing cladding has a capacity of 70,000 and is
scheduled for completion in December 2009. The Green Point
Common, on which the new 2010 stadium is being built, was
originally much larger than what now remains, and included
most of the land between the sea and Signal Hill, stretching
from the city centre towards Sea Point.
Cape Town has another world-standard stadium, Newlands, but
this is primarily used as a rugby union venue. Post FIFA
World Cup, the Green Point Stadium is likely to be used by
some of the Cape Town-based professional football outfits
that include Ajax Cape Town and Santos.
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Keys to the brand new
Cape Town Stadium will be handed over to the city’s
Executive Mayor Alderman Dan Plato ahead of the 2010
FIFA World Cup™ today. “Just over a week after the
successful hosting of the Final Draw for the 2010 FIFA
World Cup, Cape Town will witness another momentous
event – the handing over of the brand new Cape Town
Stadium (Green Point stadium) to the City of Cape Town.
“At a special ceremony to mark the completion of one of
the world’s most spectacular stadiums, the ‘keys’ will
be handed by the main contractors, Murray and Roberts
and WBHO, to Cape Town’s Executive Mayor, Alderman Dan
Plato,” the city said in a statement on Monday.
Construction of the 68 000-seater stadium started on 26
March 2007, and the project has been completed on
deadline two years and nine months later. In just 33
months, joint contractors Murray and Roberts and WBHO
completed the massive project at a cost of 4.4 billion
rand (about 600 million dollars). The project architects
were an association between GMP Architects of Germany
and two local firms, Louis Karol and Associates and
Point Architects.
Green Point stadium
The design: The sweeping silhouette of the Green
Point stadium has forever changed the face of the
surrounding Green Point Common.
Enwrapped by a façade of woven fibreglass, coated with
Teflon, it will resemble a rose-coloured bowl floating
on a base, when lit up at night. The architects have
dubbed the stadium “the Diva of Cape Town”, reflecting
the constantly changing moods of the city in varying
weather conditions.
The roof: The design and construction of the roof
is unique. Its basic structure resembled a bicycle
wheel, open in the middle with 72 cables linking the
outer and inner rings of the circle were slowly
tightened to raise the roof from ground level to its
present height.
Another first for the roof is the use of 16mm thick
panels of glass to cover and protect the spectators from
strong winds and rain. This will let in the light while
the ceiling panels underneath – made of woven PVC fabric
- will soften the noise from within.
The stadium bowl: For the eight World Cup matches
to be played at the venue, the stadium will have a
seating capacity of 68,000, including 13,000 temporary
seats which will be removed afterwards. Features of the
stadium are that it can be evacuated in 15 minutes and
that all the spectators are close to the game.
Safety: Spectators will be protected by a
state-of-the-art camera surveillance system which is
monitored by police in the Venue Operations Centre
inside the stadium, while pitch invasions are
discouraged by a wide moat around the circumference.
There is also a police station inside the building to
deal with hooligans and other criminals.
Quick facts:
96,000 cubic metres of concrete were used
The roof has a total weight of 4,700 tons
Some 9,000 glass panels were used to cover 37,000 square
metres of roof
500 toilets and 360 urinals
115 entry turnstiles
16 lifts
More than 2,500 workers were employed on site during
construction, and almost 1,200 artisans received
training from the contractors
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