First soccer event in new stadium records no major flaws

By Ofentse Mokae
27 January 2010

Last Saturday’s inaugural match at the new Cape Town Stadium between Ajax Cape Town and Santos has recorded no major flaws in planning and execution.

This is based on the “fantastic response” to the special event and the 20 000 match tickets that were made available and sold out, says the City of Cape Town.

“Stadium noise levels both inside and outside were measured and satisfactory health tests were done on food served at the stadium,” the city says in a statement.

The city says at the same time, safety and security incidents were logged.

“Only three law enforcement incidents and six traffic incidents were logged while Emergency Medical Services attended to 15 medical and seven trauma cases,” adds the city.

It says the lessons learnt from the test event will be applied to improve spectator experience and safety for the second test event to be held on the 06th of next month.

Meanwhile public opinion towards staging of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ remains overwhelmingly positive in the host nation South Africa, according to the latest market research conducted on FIFA’s behalf.

The findings from the fourth instalment of a six-wave survey suggest a strong emotional commitment to the tournament.

This is in particular a pronounced sense of pride (90%) in being the first African nation to host football’s premier event.

Surveying was conducted by international research company SPORT+MARKT immediately after the Final Draw in December also held in the city.

Of the perceived potential disadvantages of hosting the spectacular tournament, inflation remains the biggest concern for South African respondents.

About 70% of the respondents believe consumer goods will become more expensive as a result of the competition.

The 40 000 tickets available to spectators for the second test event of the 06th, featuring a Boland Invitational XV against the Vodacom Stormers, have already been sold out.