Cape Town - A proposed R30 million roof for Cape Town Stadium in preparation of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has been met with mixed reaction, while the long-term benefits remain certain.
This comes as Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis expressed the City’s intention to look into adding the temporary structure in order to host the inaugural UFC Africa event in the near future.
The Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) is also on the table as a host venue for the mixed martial arts competition, but with a far smaller seating capacity, Hill-Lewis said the City was considering spending a minimum of R30m on the roof for the stadium.
The City’s plans were prompted by South Africa’s Dricus du Plessis successfully defended his UFC middleweight title against Israel Adesanya at UFC 305 in Perth, Australia, last month.
In the build-up to Du Plessis’ fight with the Nigerian-born Adesanya, UFC president Dana White confirmed: “If Dricus beats Izzy and brings that belt back to South Africa, we will do an event there.”
Speaking to Cape Talk, Hill-Lewis said: “Our engineering teams have already come up with four options, actually, all of which work, but work at different costs and have different pros and cons and have different capacities inside the stadium and so on.
“All of them would be temporary roofs and not permanent.
“But a couple of the options would allow us to erect, take down, and erect the roof for future events as well.
“So it gives you some flexibility at the stadium, which is quite nice.”
Hill-Lewis said the City would need about two months to build the structure.
“We’ve said to the national government, the minister (Gayton McKenzie), that we think we could do it absolutely soon, sometime around March next year, but we would need confirmation quite soon so that we could get cracking.
“Obviously, we know there's a meeting happening later this month in Abu Dhabi to discuss this.
“So we've already sent through all the engineering drawings to the national minister.
“I met him at rugby on the weekend and handed all of it over to him.”
@capetalk The City of Cape Town is considering adding a temporary roof to Cape Town stadium, at a cost of AT LEAST R30 million. Speaking to Lester Kiewit on Good Morning Cape Town, mayor @geordin.hill.lewis says the plan comes after Cape Town’s proposal to host South African UFC champion Dricus du Plessis’ next match, which would require an indoor venue. Hill-Lewis says in the long run, this would benefit the City as it could bid for other major international events that would require an indoor venue. Do you think this is the right move by the City of Cape Town? #capetownstadium ♬ original sound - CapeTalk
Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie’s spokesperson, Cassiday Jacobs said they weren't commenting at this time.
Spokesperson for Agriculture, Economic Development, and Tourism MEC Ivan Meyer, Daniel Johnson, said: “The Western Cape government believes in data-led, evidence-based decision-making. While on face value a roof over a venue such as the stadium may suggest more events, thorough research has to be done to get an indication of the potential impact it could have on the events and tourism industry.”
Mouille Point Ratepayers’ Association spokesperson, Jane Meyer, was not in favour of the stadium hosting the UFC event, due to the time difference between South Africa and the US.
“What about the Good Hope Centre that is enclosed that may cost less to retrofit than having to build a temporary roof for the DHL Stadium, and it’s not near too many residents who could get disturbed?
“Given the time the event would take place, in order to cater for the US market that is very late at night or early hours of the morning, it may be better suited to be hosted in the city as opposed to residential areas like Green Point and Mouille Point.”
Founder of lobby group Stop CoCT, Sandra Dickson, said the future for the stadium was underplanned and done with little foresight for diverse use since its inception.
Dickson has been critical of wasteful expenditure at the stadium, which four years ago only managed to generate R22m in income while it cost almost R80m to maintain.
“Once again, the City is looking at a limited short-term and temporary solution. With vision, the stadium can be combined with a shopping mall with a focus on entertainment and/or with event related facilities around it,” Dickson said.