A suite leaseholder at FNB Stadium has accused Stadium Management SA (SMSA) of ill-treating hospitality tenants at the venue, despite paying “over R600,000 per year” in rent.
“We are the ones who keep the stadium lights on because our rent is guaranteed revenue to the stadium,” the leaseholder, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
“Without us, they won’t sustain the stadium, but we still have a lot of problems as suite tenants at SMSA venues.
“We are ill-treated in such a way that we don’t even have designated parking. We are not allowed to sell tickets, yet we are leasing the suites.
“You pay over R600,000 per annum for rent, and then you are told you can’t bring your own food and alcohol to the stadium to cater for your guests. We are forced to use the stadium’s catering, which is unfair. Their catering companies overcharge us, and yet we don’t sell the tickets.”
The frustrated suite tenant also said SMSA’s glitchy new ticketing system, operated by in-house entity MyTicket, was a nuisance to their operations.
During the derby, our guests were stuck for hours trying to open their tickets as the MyTicket app experienced connection issues.
— Anonymous FNB Stadium suite tenant
In last month’s Soweto derby between Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates at the stadium, the much-maligned system caused glitches that left hospitality guests frustrated.
“In the past, you would display your [VIP] parking tickets on the window screen, and that was easy — but now everyone must stop and show the security guards their parking ticket on the phone. What if your phone is snatched? People don’t feel safe about that,” the suite leaseholder bemoaned.
“During the derby, our guests were stuck for hours trying to open their tickets as the MyTicket app experienced connection issues. They were frustrated and that’s not good for our business because we invite big business people, and most of the time when those people are inconvenienced, they never trust you again.”
The suite tenant also alleged the MyTicket system was violating the Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia).
“We found out that the stadium has access to my MyTicket app. They can see who I gave tickets to and they see the e-mails of the people I gave those tickets to, which is against the Popia. My people didn’t give me consent to be tracked. What are they doing with those e-mails and that data?”
SMSA’s new ticketing system has wreaked havoc, with some fans telling Sowetan they feared its inefficiency would lead to a stampede one day, a view shared last week by sports minister Gayton McKenzie.
SMSA CEO Bertie Grobbelaar could not be reached for comment and did not reply to the message Sowetan sent him on Monday.
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