The Rand Stadium is a

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

Rosettenville Rosettenville is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. It lies to the south of the city centre. History Rosettenville is named after Leo (or Levin) Rosettenstein, who surveyed the land and sold stands after gold was discovered on the Witwaters ...

, a suburb of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a Megacity#List of megacities, megacity, and is List of urban areas by p ...

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 coun ...

. It was set to be utilized as a training field for teams participating in 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 ...

after being completely rebuilt and reopened in August 2008. Despite the relatively small capacity, it is regarded as one of the best playing surfaces in the country.

History

Rand Stadium was constructed between 1949 and 1951 at a cost of £60,000 with a capacity of 15,000. Over time extensive renovations have been carried out, the first between 1964 and 1965 in which facilities were added and the second in 1976 that saw the installation of floodlighting. The stadium was adjudged to need serious improvements and it was decided that it would be demolished in 2006. The new Rand Stadium, managed by Stadium Management South Africa (SMSA), was rebuilt as an all-seater stadium and retained its old scoreboard for heritage purposes. The original capacity at Rand Stadium was 15,000 but a 2009 revamp in preparation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup saw that capacity be extended to accommodate a maximum of 30, 000 fans. The refurbishment includes a roof that covers up to 3,000 fans. Even though Rand Stadium has a new-look with an all-seater stadium, the old scoreboard has been retained for heritage.

Football

Domestic

There has been a number of cup finals at the venue, including the Kaizer Chiefs versus Hellenic Champion of Champions final in 1975 and the Wits University (now

Bidvest Wits Bidvest Wits Football Club, (simply often known as Wits University F.C. or Wits) was a South African professional football club from Johannesburg which played in the Premier Soccer League the first-tier of South African league football system. ...

) winning the 1978

Mainstay Cup The Nedbank Cup is the current name of South Africa's premier club soccer knockout tournament. While many formats have been used over the years, the tournament has always been based on the idea of giving lower league and amateur teams a chance t ...

final against Kaizer Chiefs in the old National Professional Soccer League (NPSL), which was preceded by the National Soccer League (NSL). It was home to the original incarnation of local team

Highlands Park Highlands Park Football Club was a South African professional soccer club who played in Modderfontein, Johannesburg. They were founded in 2003 as a phoenix club to the earlier Highlands Park F.C. (1959) and Highlands Park F.C. (1990) The cl ...

. During the 2010–11 season it was home to local PSL team

Kaizer Chiefs Kaizer Chiefs Football Club (often known as Chiefs) are a South African professional football club based in Naturena, Johannesburg South, that plays in the Premier Soccer League. The team is nicknamed ''AmaKhosi'', which means "Lords" or "Ch ...

. but infrastructure issues and low attendance rates prompted them to move to the FNB Stadium.It is currently the training venue for arch-rivals Orlando Pirates. After it was temporarily closed down for renovations and revamped, Rand Stadium hosted the 2009 Nedbank Cup final between

Moroka Swallows Moroka Swallows Football Club (often known as simply Swallows or The Birds) is a South African professional football club based in Soweto in the city of Johannesburg in the Gauteng province. Founded in 1947, Swallows are one of the original two ...

and the

University of Pretoria The University of Pretoria ( af, Universiteit van Pretoria, nso, Yunibesithi ya Pretoria) is a multi-campus public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was established in 1908 ...

International

The

South Africa national football team The South Africa national soccer team represents South Africa in men's international soccer and it is run by the South African Football Association, the governing body for Soccer in South Africa. The team's nickname is Bafana Bafana (The Boys ...

(''Bafana Bafana'') use Rand Stadium as a training ground. The stadium has hosted two international fixtures. an

African Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internat ...

qualifier In linguistics, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure which ''modifies'' the meaning of another element in the structure. For instance, the adjective "red" acts as a modifier in the noun phrase "red ball", prov ...

against

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

in April 1993 which finished in a goalless draw. The ground hosted the second ever Bafana match when they hosted Angola in the 2016 African Nations Championship qualifier in October 2015.

Other events

Rand Stadium has also hosted a number of high-profile boxing events, including the Arnold Taylor versus Romeo Anaya fight in 1993 as well as the Johnny du Plooy and Mike Weaver bout in 1987.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Stadium history

Stadium Management South AfricaPhotos of Stadiums in South Africa
a
cafe.daum.net/stade

StadiumDB pictures
Soccer venues in South Africa Sports venues in Johannesburg Sports venues completed in 1951