The Cape Town Stadium ( af, Kaapstad-stadion; xh, Inkundla yezemidlalo yaseKapa) is an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

(soccer) and

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

stadium in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, that was built for the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

. During the planning stage, it was known as the Green Point Stadium, which was the name of the older stadium on an adjacent site, and this name was also used frequently during World Cup media coverage. It is the home ground of

Premier Soccer League Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

clubs

Cape Town Spurs A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. T ...

(since 2010) and

Cape Town City A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...

(since 2016). It has also hosted the

South Africa Sevens The South Africa Sevens is an annual rugby sevens tournament that is held in South Africa. It is currently hosted in Cape Town and is part of the Sevens World Series run by World Rugby. A South African leg of the World series has been include ...

rugby tournament since 2015. The stadium is located in Green Point, between Signal Hill and the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

, close to the Cape Town city center and to the

Victoria & Alfred Waterfront The Victoria & Alfred (V&A) Waterfront in Cape Town is situated on the Atlantic shore, Table Bay Harbour, the City of Cape Town and Table Mountain. Adrian van der Vyver designed the complex. Situated in South Africa's oldest working harbour, ...

, a popular tourist and shopping venue. The stadium had a seating capacity of 64,100 during the 2010 World Cup, later reduced to 58,309. The stadium is connected to the waterfront by a new road connection, Granger Bay Boulevard. Cape Town Stadium is the 5th biggest stadium in South Africa; the biggest in Cape Town.

Etymology

During construction, Cape Town Stadium was unofficially known as Green Point Stadium, the name of an older stadium adjacent to it that was partially demolished and rebuilt into the Green Point Athletics Stadium. During October 2009, the city asked for the public to propose names for the new stadium and the name Cape Town Stadium was chosen. In December 2017, plans for a new name were underway.

Previous stadium

The stadium is adjacent to the site of the original 18,000 seater stadium

Green Point Stadium The Green Point Stadium in Cape Town, South Africa was a multi-purpose sports stadium. Opened in 1897, it had a concrete banked cycle track, also occasionally used for motorsport, with a lap distance of a third of a mile - - and inside the ...

. It replaces a portion of the Metropolitan Golf Club site which has now been realigned. The previous stadium, originally constructed in 1897 and which was partly demolished in 2007 and rebuilt in 2013 as the Green Point Athletics Stadium, was a

multi-purpose stadium A multi-purpose stadium is a type of stadium designed to be easily used by multiple types of events. While any stadium could potentially host more than one type of sport or event, this concept usually refers to a specific design philosophy tha ...

used for cycling, athletics, cricket and soccer. Later used mainly for soccer matches, it was the home ground of

Santos Football Club Santos Futebol Clube (), commonly known simply as Santos or Santos FC and nicknamed the ''Peixe'' (; "fish"), is a Brazilian sports club based in Vila Belmiro, a ''bairro'' in the city of Santos. It is also the team with the most goals in ...

and

Ajax Cape Town Cape Town Spurs F.C. (formerly known as Ajax Cape Town) is a South African professional football club based in Parow in the city of Cape Town that plays in the National First Division. Dutch Eredivisie club AFC Ajax was their parent club and ...

at different points. It also hosted music concerts, including the November 2003 46664 Concert for the benefit of AIDS victims. The section of the old stadium that remained was redeveloped into the Green Point Athletics Stadium, which opened in 2015 with a seating capacity of 4500.

Design

Construction of the Cape Town Stadium, located on the

Green Point Common Green Point Common, is a park in Green Point, Cape Town, in South Africa, where numerous playing fields and a golf course are situated. The Green Point Urban Park & Biodiversity Garden is just behind Mouille Point Mouille Point ("Mu-lee") is a ...

, began in March 2007. In 33 months, joint venture contractors

Murray & Roberts Murray & Roberts Holdings Ltd. is a South African-based engineering and mining contractor. It is listed on the JSE Securities Exchange. The Group delivers its capabilities into three global primary market sectors the resources, industrial, ene ...

, now known as

Concor Concor Holdings (Proprietary) Limited. is a South African construction and mining services company. It is active throughout Southern Africa, involved in mining, civil engineering, building and road projects. Concor returned as an independent br ...

and WBHO completed the project at a cost of R4.4billion – or approximately US$600million. The project architects were an association between GMP Architects of Germany and two local firms, Louis Karol and Associates and Point Architects. The structural engineers comprised a joint venture between BKS, Henry Fagan & Partners, KFD Wilkinson, Goba, Iliso and Arcus Gibb.

Handing over

Cape Town Stadium was officially handed over to the

City of Cape Town The City of Cape Town ( af, Stad Kaapstad; xh, IsiXeko saseKapa) is the metropolitan municipality which governs the city of Cape Town, South Africa and its suburbs and exurbs. As of the 2011 census, it had a population of 3,740,026. The remo ...

on schedule on 14 December 2009. At a ceremony in front of over 200 invited guests and the media representatives from around the world, Cape Town Executive Mayor Alderman Dan Plato, received the keys to the stadium officially confirming the opening of Cape Town Stadium.

After the World Cup

A consortium consisting of South Africa's Sail Group and French-based Stade de France were awarded the service contract to operate the stadium and ensure that it remains a sustainable multi-purpose venue after the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The consortium, called Business Venture Investments 1317, was involved in the management of the stadium from January 2009 onwards. The city municipality paid the consortium to manage the stadium up to and during the World Cup, after which the consortium will lease the stadium from the city for a period of not less than 10 years and not more than 30 years. Following the World Cup, temporary rows of seating on either side on the top tier were replaced by events suites and clubrooms, reducing the stadium's capacity to 58,300. The stadium features corporate hospitality suites, medical, training, and conferencing and banqueting facilities. The consortium will operate the stadium as well as manage and maintain the defined areas of the surrounding urban park and sport precinct on the 85-hectare Greenpoint Common from stadium revenue.

have used the stadium as their home ground from the 2010-11 Premier Soccer League (PSL) season onwards. Due to the stadium's ongoing financial problems, the City of Cape Town had sought to acquire Western Province rugby as an "anchor tenant". After four years of talks, Western Province announced in December 2014 that they had decided to remain at

Newlands Stadium The Newlands Stadium, referred to as DHL Newlands for sponsorship reasons, is located in Cape Town, South Africa. The stadium has a capacity of 51,900 people, but is not an all-seater venue. Various sports teams use the stadium as their hom ...

. In March 2015, the

South African Rugby Union The South African Rugby Union (SARU) is the governing body for rugby union in South Africa and is affiliated to World Rugby. It was established in 1992 as the South African Rugby Football Union, from the merger of the South African Rugby Board ...

announced that the

tournament would be staged at Cape Town Stadium for four years, beginning in December 2015. In June 2016, it was announced that new PSL club

would also play at Cape Town Stadium. In late 2020, Western Province RFU announced that they were selling their longtime home of

to developers, who planned to demolish the ground and convert it to a mixed-use development. From 2021 onwards, franchise rugby team Stormers and

Currie Cup The Currie Cup is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition, played each winter and spring (June to October), featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier ...

side WP will call Cape Town Stadium home, as will international rugby tests played in Cape Town.

Inaugural games

The first game to be hosted at the new Cape Town Stadium was a Cape Town derby between

and Santos on 23 January 2010 as part of the official inauguration of the stadium. Only 20,000 tickets were made available for the event and were sold out by Friday 15 January 2010. The Soccer Festival had entertainment from local band

Freshlyground Freshlyground are a South African Afro-fusion band that formed in Cape Town in 2002. The band members have different backgrounds, including South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. Freshlyground's musical style blends elements of traditional Sou ...

and a

Vuvuzela The vuvuzela is a horn, with an inexpensive injection-molded plastic shell about long, which produces a loud monotone note, typically around B♭ 3 (the first B♭ below middle C). Some models are made in two parts to facilitate storage, a ...

orchestra performance during half time. The second of three 'dry runs' at the new Cape Town Stadium was another Cape Town derby. Local Cape Town rugby teams, The Vodacom Stormers and the Boland Inv. XV battled it out at the Cape Town Rugby Festival that took place on 6 February 2010. The Rugby Festival had entertainment from local band

Flat Stanley ''Flat Stanley'' is an American children's book series written by author Jeff Brown (January 1, 1926 – December 3, 2003). The idea for the book began as a bedtime story for Brown’s sons, which Brown turned into the first Flat Stanley book. Th ...

. Only 40,000 tickets were made available for the event. This was double the amount that attended the Soccer Festival. Cape Town Stadium hosted its third test event on Monday 22 March, during which all 55,000 permanent seats were available for the first time. A total of 52,000 tickets were sold. ‘Cape Town For Jesus', a religious gathering addressed by South African evangelist

Angus Buchan Angus Buchan is a Christian author and evangelist based in South Africa. Early life Buchan was born in Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). The son of immigrants from Scotland, he farmed maize and cattle in Zambia until he moved in 1976 ...

, was the first major non-sporting event hosted at the stadium, and gave the stadium operators another chance to test their readiness ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Cape Town Stadium hosted its fourth and final test event on Saturday 10 April. This was the first time that the stadium was utilised at night, for the International Under-20 Soccer Challenge between South Africa, Brazil, Nigeria and Ghana. About 40,000 attended the event that tested the stadium's readiness for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

2010 FIFA World Cup

In the

, Cape Town Stadium hosted five first round matches, one second round, one quarter-final, and one semi-final. During the World Cup, all FIFA media referred to the stadium as 'Green Point Stadium'.

Matches

International friendlies

On 17 November 2010, the Cape Town Stadium hosted its first

international friendly An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

. The match was between

and the

USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, where they played for the Nelson Mandela Challenge Trophy.

Sporting and events

There was speculation of a possible move of the Super rugby team Stormers to the Cape Town Stadium. However, the Stormers have since continued playing at

, which is owned by the Western Province Rugby Football Union.

World Rugby Sevens Series

2022 Rugby World Cup Sevens

It will take place between 9 and 11 September 2022.

Tennis

Concerts

Movies

Cape Town Stadium was featured in the film ''

Safe House A safe house (also spelled safehouse) is, in a generic sense, a secret place for sanctuary or suitable to hide people from the law, hostile actors or actions, or from retribution, threats or perceived danger. It may also be a metaphor. Histori ...

'' (2012). The stadium also features in many local advertising and print media campaigns.

Incidents

On 7 November 2012, shortly before the U.S rock band Linkin Park was set to perform at the sold-out stadium, gusts of wind caused advertising scaffolding outside the stadium to collapse onto a crowd of people injuring 19 and killing 1; of the 19 injured, 12 were taken to hospital for further treatment.

Calls for demolition

Several individuals and groups have called for the stadium to be demolished due to its under-utilization after the World Cup. Effective utilization and use of the stadium is thus a political issue in the city.