With the first anniversary of the Green Point stadium construction site in March, the City of Cape Town announced that it is on track with the construction and other preparations for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Green Point stadium is one-third complete and will be finished by mid-December 2009, six months ahead of the tournament in 2010. It will be ready by October 30, 2009, for FIFA to start its inspection of seating, television and other technical infrastructure for the event.

Cape Town municipality executive director of service delivery integration Mike Marsden says, “We have secured the completion date with the contractors and we are firmly on track to meet the deadline.”

He added that he had spoken to the director-general of the government’s 2010 unit, Dr Joe Paahla, after some media reports on concerns about Cape Town and two other host cities meeting deadlines. These concerns appeared in the government’s 2010 FIFA World Cup midterm report on 2010 readiness to South Africa’s Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

Marsden says, “Dr Paahla and I agreed that, although deadlines were tight, there was no question that Cape Town would not be ready in time. The city, FIFA and its Local Organising Committee will continue to work closely together. Our stadium is on track, we have planned our fan park and public viewing areas and are now moving into the operational phase of this huge project.”

With over 2 000 workers on the site, the first of the stadium’s three tiers of seating was completed by the end of April.

The city is also busy with two international processes to sell the naming rights for the stadium and to find a suitable long-term operator for the stadium after 2010.

The 68 000-seater stadium will be suitable for soccer, rugby, other events and concerts, when completed.

The stadium construction has also kick-started the redevelopment of the surrounding Green Point Common urban park and sporting precinct. The proposed redevelop- ment has gone through a second round of public comment and will now be taken through the city council’s approval processes before a final recommendation to the provincial government.

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