By Bathandwa Mbola

Cape Town - Despite a tight deadline for the completion of construction of the Green Point stadium, the City of Cape Town has assured the public that the stadium will be ready on time.

“We have secured the completion date with the contractors and we are firmly on track to meet the deadline,” said the city’s Executive Director of Service Delivery Integration, Mike Marsden.

Mr Marsden was responding on Wednesday, following a 2010 Mid-Term Government Report compiled by the 2010 FIFA World Cup Government Unit indicating that there were risks to meeting the deadline.

The report which provided the state of readiness from various government departments and host cities as part of implementing 2010 FIFA World Cup government guarantees and obligations, noted that the Green Point and the Nelson Mandela Bay stadiums were at risk to meet the deadlines.

This is in terms of the completion deadline for the Confederations Cup to be hosted in December 2009.

“The City, FIFA and its Local Organising Committee will continue to work closely together. Our stadium is on track, we have planned our fan park and public viewing areas and are now moving into the operational phase of this huge project,” Mr Marsden said.

He said the stadium is one third complete and would be finished by mid December 2009, six months ahead of the tournament in 2010.

Cape Town is also the preferred candidate for the hosting of the Final Draw in December 2009.

It will be ready by 30 October 2009 for FIFA to commence its inspection of seating, television and other technical infrastructure for the event, said Mr Marsden.

Once completed, the 68 000 seater stadium will be all-weather, multi-purpose, environmentally sustainable, modern, technologically advanced, world class stadium and will be suitable for soccer, rugby, events and concerts.

The stadium construction has also kick-started the redevelopment of the surrounding Green Point Common urban park and sporting precinct.

The proposed redevelopment, Mr Marsden said has just gone through a second round of public comment and will now be taken through the City Council’s approval processes before a final recommendation to the provincial government. - BuaNews

Source: BuaNews