Nomadic Chiefs, Bucs find stadiums to call home

The post-World Cup stadium landscape is beginning to settle, with several new deals on the brink of being announced or waiting in the pipeline.

Such deals will use venues such as FNB Stadium and Cape Town Stadium as both soccer and rugby venues, with Saru being in the midst of a wide-ranging discussion about whether to centralise the allocation of home Tests or carry on with the current model where Tests are rotated.

Kaizer Chiefs will play 12 of their 15 home league games in the 2011/12 PSL season at FNB Stadium. They will also playall their cup games there, while Orlando Pirates have formally made Orlando Stadium their home. The current deal between Pirates and Stadium Management SA (SMSA), the company who manage Orlando Stadium, is known to be for eight years, but there are murmurings it might be extended.

The Sunday Times is also aware that Moroka Swallows approached SMSA with a view to using Rand Stadium as an alternative home venue to their main base, at Dobsonville Stadium. This overture was rejected, possibly because Rand Stadium is being earmarked as a home for the national under-23 side and Banyana Banyana. There are also rumours about the venue being associated with Pirates in some way - possibly as the club's training quarters.

While the indecision by the Golden Lions with a view to moving from Ellis Park to FNB Stadium continues, it is known that Saru are seriously considering changing their model for the allocation of high-profile rugby Tests. This is largely because there is more money to be made this way, with the World Cup stadiums playing a large role in their thinking.

"If you compare the money Saru can make at Ellis Park compared to FNB, they can probably make double - I've run the numbers," says Jacques Grobbelaar, executive chairman of SMSA.

Ellis Park seats 61000 people as a result of pre-World Cup upgrades, and FNB Stadium hosts 94000 fans. Not all of Ellis Park's 61000 seats will be sold to ticket-buying customers, though, as some are already taken by season-ticket holders.

The debate about the allocation of home Tests is a spirited, however, and is by no means over. Brian van Zyl, Natal Sharks chief executive, is cautious. "We would like to see the nuts and bolts of the proposals," he said. "The perception is that Test matches generate huge amounts. It depends how you apportion the expenses and the income.

"Nobody takes into account rates and taxes, electricity and water, personnel, security, ushering, ground maintenance. Our stadium costs us more than a R1-million a month. We had a horrific year last year because we couldn't host a Test because of the World Cup."

In general, Van Zyl wants greater urgency. "This has been in their court for months. The danger is they are going to rush people. Everything they do is rushed."

Harold Verster, the Cheetahs chief executive, was bullish: "Saru should run Tests, but we'd like to see the proposals so we can make an informed choice."