Sevens spectacle must move to Cape Town
8 Dec 2010
JON CARDINELLI says the decision to move the South African leg of the IRB Sevens Series to Cape Town is a no-brainer.
According to Die Burger, plans are afoot to move the annual sevens spectacle from Outeniqua Park in George to one of the World Cup stadiums in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth or Rustenberg.
Saru hopes that the South African leg will take on the shine and glamour of the Hong Kong event, and while Outeniqua Park has its charms, it cannot compete with the World Cup venues.
George’s contract to host the tournament expires this year, meaning this weekend’s competition is likely to be the last time the southern Cape city stages the event. Come next year, the world’s best sevens players should be competing in an arena worthy of the occasion, arenas that house at least five times as many people as the 8 000-seater Outeniqua Park.
It’s a no-brainer to move away from George. Moving to a bigger stadium will mean a bigger occasion, with more people filtering through the gates and adding to the spectacle. It also makes sense to stage the event in a more accessible centre, as international visitors need to fly to Cape Town before connecting to George.
So the only decision that remains is whether to move the event to the Cape Town Stadium, the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, or the Royal Bafokeng Stadium. These venues were largely successful during the 2010 soccer World Cup, and two of those venues have enjoyed further use.
The Royal Bafokeng Stadium is home to the Platinum Stars while the Eastern Province Kings have taken residence at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. The Cape Town Stadium, however, is still struggling to acquire a resident sports side with the Stormers and Western Province refusing to move away from Newlands. Negotiations are ongoing, but for the moment, the magnificent venue in Green Point remains vacant.
These reasons alone won’t be enough to swing the vote, but Cape Town may crack the nod by virtue of their sports-mad fan base.
The crowd numbers at Newlands in the past couple of years have been record-breaking, while the Stormers’ first-ever match at the Cape Town Stadium in February (a warm-up game against Boland) drew a crowd of 40 000. Fifty thousand Capetonians watched Bafana Bafana play USA in November, a fixture that witnessed an unfavourable 1-0 result to the Americans, but was once again an outstanding occasion.
It makes the most commercial sense to pick Cape Town as the host city. Apart from the resident fan base, it’s easily the most popular tourist destination of the three cities lobbying for the event.
Like George, Rustenberg, or more accurately, Phokeng, is not as accessible to international travellers as Cape Town. Tourists from overseas will also need to connect to Port Elizabeth from one of South Africa’s international airports if they want to attend an event at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
If Saru’s aim to is to make the South African leg as successful and as popular as the Hong Kong Sevens, they need to pick a venue as well as a city that is popular with foreign and local fans alike. Saru needs to take the Sevens Series to one of the World Cup stadiums, and they need to take it to the venue situated in one of the world’s favourite cities.
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76 Comments
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9 Dec 2010, 06:04 am
The city of George and the whole Garden Route and citizens benefits greatly from the 7′s in George. It is a huge financial benefit, it would be a great disappointment and financial blow to an already poverty stricken area should it be moved to another venue
9 Dec 2010, 07:02 am
Skoonseun (who runs the PE stadium) + Cheeky (who runs the politicians) will make sure it goes to PE.
9 Dec 2010, 07:05 am
@Nanashi : Try to get simple, simple spelling right. It’s not even a grammar error.
9 Dec 2010, 08:49 am
Cape Town mostly definetly.
9 Dec 2010, 09:29 am
@iori Yagami : lol mostly definetly?? WTF where is tackles!!
9 Dec 2010, 10:19 am
@THETACKLER
“It’s not even a grammar error.”
The irony is tragic
9 Dec 2010, 10:29 am
@TheTackler :
its a grammatical error. not a grammar error. you can’t use a noun to describe another noun. if you’re going to be the spelling and grammar gestapo- get it right pilgrim. you’re comment though provided me with the biggest dose of irony in a long time thanks for that.
9 Dec 2010, 10:36 am
@vasteses : george, poverty stricken are you serious?
9 Dec 2010, 11:54 am
@mr_ruga_luva : Try “siege catapult” and “bottle brush” and “shoe polish” and…(etc)
9 Dec 2010, 11:56 am
@mr_ruga_luva : And, of course, “rugby ball”.
9 Dec 2010, 12:13 pm
@TheTackler :
all those things are compound nouns where the adjective form of the noun does not exist. you can’t say things are rugbybical balls or bottelic brushes. but where the adjective exits you use the adjective form of the noun to describe. hence grammatical error
9 Dec 2010, 12:49 pm
@mr_ruga_luva : haha, tackler got his *** handed to him again.
9 Dec 2010, 13:53 pm
It’s amazing what hogwash people come up with if you give them time and a few IOL articles.
The city at no point considered demolishing CT stadium. Nobody denies that it faces sustainability issues, but given its potential to develop into a world class venue, with tons of events, is still there in the medium term, once it removes all the commercial restrictions.
What the city is considering is finding the right deal for the venue and the City and WP Rugby that would result in all parties benefiting from a WP Rugby move i.e. rugby accepting maintenance of partial maintenance of the venue, securing existing revenue streams, and building a stronger brand with the support of the City.
There are basic issues that need to be address by WPRU before they consider a move, but if you’re thinking beyond the short term, CTS offers the WPRU brand significant future opportunities to grow the team, brand and the WPRU company in general.
As we speak Quarter 1 of 2011 already sees 3 major concerts reaching sold out status, with U2 selling close to 80,000, Neil Diamond and Kings of Leon reaching about 35,000. That’s just in the first quarter, outside of conferences and other events.
Cape Town stadium would offer a significant boost to the Sevens brand in South Africa, and for sponsors i.e. Emirates. It has surrounding rugby fields to create a rugby festival, easily accessible, tons of hotel rooms surrounding it, and an iconic location.
Rugby Sevens of the future is following a new trajectory towards Rio 2016 and its inclusion in the Olympic Games. It would be great if it maintains its intimate festival atmosphere, but when money is backing it, they expect more bang for their bucks, and Cape Town Stadium offers that opportunity. Fan Walk, stadium, waterfront, hotels, restaurants, location, location, location…
9 Dec 2010, 13:56 pm
@capeguy :
the venue needs 21 events a year to cover the running costs.
what will those be?
9 Dec 2010, 15:09 pm
Move it to PE. Much better weather, and you can actually approach the water.
9 Dec 2010, 15:46 pm
@Bouts :
you can actually approach the water?
why?
is it friendlier?
does it offer you a smoke to break the ice?
does it put you at ease by telling a funny joke?
surely not?
9 Dec 2010, 16:13 pm
The Fan Walk makes Cape Town Stadium something special and must be the best new innovation of the SWC.
I’m with Capeguy. Any talk of demolishing CT Stadium is nonsense. WPRU may end up running the stadium as part of a deal between them and the City of Cape Town (City = owner; WPRU = operator). As I see it WPRU stands to win big time (financially) if they were to move and have the Newlands site redeveloped as part of a partnership. Rezoning the land will however take about three years.
9 Dec 2010, 17:02 pm
@Tarlo : not all ad hominem’s are fallacious. in this case his location and bias are relevant to the issue.
9 Dec 2010, 19:29 pm
I’ve just been to the Dubai 7′s and it is a no brainer that it should be moved from George (and I know that area well).
The tournament is massive in Dubai and must generate massive amounts of money. And its a great party atmosphere, much more than the rugby. This time of the year it has to be CT or PE as tourists are heading that way (possibly try get it a week later).
PE considering where our players mostly come from and CT because its a bigger tourist attraction. Biased choice is PE.
9 Dec 2010, 19:48 pm
@mr_ruga_luva : A “compound noun” is formed by compounding a noun with another qualifying noun serving as an adjective. So you CAN have a noun as an adjective after all!
(Heard of the expression, “don’t teach grandma how to suck eggs”?)
9 Dec 2010, 19:49 pm
“Grammar error” is a “compound noun”.
9 Dec 2010, 20:12 pm
@TheTackler :
Who cares?
10 Dec 2010, 09:12 am
@TheTackler : sigh. we both know you’re wrong. this is getting tedious. you example with grandma doesnt even make your point.
like i said in a previous post for a noun to be qualifying in forming a compound noun the adjective form of the word must not exist.
saying grammar error instead of grammatical error
is like saying politics interference(political interference)
economics reform(economic reform)
defense structure(defensive structure)
pretentiousness tackler (pretentious tackler)
10 Dec 2010, 09:22 am
@gunther : The water is warmer than that ice in Cape Town.
12 Dec 2010, 21:25 pm
Durban would be a disaster for any rugby tournament in December. Rain rain and a bit of rain.
13 Dec 2010, 23:09 pm
I really don’t understand the push for PE outside of political reasons.
1. The stadium is in an industrial area
2. The town is boring
3. During the WC the entire place was dead after 7pm, we could hardly find a restaurant to eat at after late matches.
As for Cape Town Stadium, yes it needs events, but a venue without a tentant require 3 years to establish a solid events schedule. This is no different to any other venue globally e.g. Wembley, Stade de France.
It also needs a strong conferencing/exhibition/meetings element operated by a proven conferenc/events management team…Convenco?
The case for PSL matches remainds poor because clubs aren’t willing to invest in a sustainable strategy or even to takes risks. In addition they simply do not invest sufficiently in marketing.
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