The City of Cape Town spends R55.1 million a year on the maintenance of Cape Town Stadium on the Green Point Common.
The stadium was built at a cost of R4.4 billion for the Soccer World Cup in 2010 and since its construction it has been unable to generate enough revenue to pay for its own maintenance
A consortium tried to manage the stadium and failed so the city established a municipal entity in 2018 to take over operations.
Speaking to Business Insider, Mayco member for finance, Ian Neilson said:
“That entity has been able to reduce the maintenance cost, resulting in a 24.1% cost decline for the city in the 2018/19 financial year. One of the entity’s key performance indicators is that the grant funding received is reduced by an agreed percentage on an annual basis to ensure the stadium becomes less reliant on City funding, and more self-sustainable.”
Western Province Rugby moving to the Cape Town Stadium from Newlands in 2021 should have positive impact on the stadium’s finances.
The city has spent on average R39 million on the upkeep of the stadium per year in the past decade, whilst making R9.5 million a year.
Revenue increased from R22.1 million against a target of R18.7 million, in the last financial year because of a larger number of events and film shoots than expected.
Neilson said maintenance costs for the Cape Town Stadium are expected to continue to escalate due to general inflation, ageing infrastructure, and specialist replacement parts that have to be imported.
More: Business Insider