 One of the emergency financial decisions by the Pontiac City Council was to sell the Pontiac Silverdome, originally built for $55.7 million 35 years ago, for $583,000.... less than a house, or Rodent Infested Manhattan One Bed Room Apartment. ANC Captain Blighs of S.Y. ZA-Titanic Charging Full 'Circus Maximus' Speed Ahead to 2010 World Cup Iceberg... |
Two more articles, The Big Five: Stadiums could become white elephants and R4.5bn stadium to let for R1/yr, confirming the future Post Peak Oil Collapse white elephant status of Superdome Stadiums, in ANC Captain Blighs of S.Y. ZA-Titanic Charging Full 'Circus Maximus' Speed Ahead to 2010 World Cup Iceberg...The dome changed hands at a price that represents just a quarter-cent on the dollar versus what it cost to build in 1975 — $220 million in today’s dollars. That comes out to $7.25 a seat, a fire sale that’s reduced the once-proud arena to another sad symbol of the Detroit area’s economic collapse.
“An 80,000-seat domed arena and its 127-acre site sold for less than a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan,” Jon Stewart marveled on “The Daily Show.” Not just any apartment — one “with a rodent problem, above a bowling alley and below another bowling alley.”
Leeb said, Pontiac could ill afford to continue paying $1.5 million in annual upkeep for the stadium.
ANALYSIS: The Big Five: Stadiums could become white elephants
Tue, 24 Nov 2009 06:22:23 GMT
Earth Times
 $1,2bn (R8,9bn). The estimated total construction cost of SA's 10 World Cup stadiums. [ANC Captain Blighs of S.Y. ZA-Titanic Charging Full 'Circus Maximus' Speed Ahead to 2010 World Cup Iceberg...] |
Johannesburg - Are the new stadiums built for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, a country where football jostles with rugby and cricket for audience, destined to become white elephants after the month-long tournament? That's the 12.1-billion-rand, or 1.57-billion-dollar question - the cost of five new stadiums in Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Nelspruit and Polokwane.
The "white elephant" spectre is one that has come to haunt World Cup and Olympic Games hosts.
A little over a year after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games China is struggling to find a real purpose for its 450-million-dollar showpiece Bird's Nest stadium, while one of Germany's 2006 World Cup stadiums in Leipzigalso struggles to attract more than a few thousand fans to third-division games.
With six months to go until kick-off in Johannesburg, South Africa is faced with the possibility that some of its new venues will be gathering dust beyond July 2010.
That the country needed a raft of new and improved stadiums is not in doubt.
The country's existing football stadiums were too small and shabby by World Cup standards.
But some of the stadiums are controversial nonetheless.
Cape Town and Durban already had decent rugby stadiums of more than 50,000 seats, which some say could have been expanded to host eight World Cup games each and two semi-finals.
Both cities opted instead for new stadiums.
Wedged between Table Mountain and the Atlantic Ocean, Cape Town's new 68,000-seat Greenpoint stadium has an undeniably stunning backdrop.
But locations like that comes at a price - an extra 1.2 billion rand in site-specific costs to be exact, says Cape Town's 2010 spokesman Pieter Cronje, Cape Town's 2010 manager.
By the time it's finished, Greenpoint stadium will have cost 4.5 billion rand, more than Beijing's Bird's Nest and more than double the initial estimate.
The national government is picking up most of the tab but the city, which like most South African cities is chronically under- funded and struggling to contain violent anti-poverty protests, still faces a hefty shortfall.
And it has yet to secure an anchor tenant: The city's two Premier Soccer League teams have too few fans to fill it and the provincial rugby team is deeply attached to its iconic Newlands Stadium.
Cronje believes Stade de France and local company SAIL, the consortium chosen to operate the venue will fill it with big concerts, operas and other events.
"We believe the long-term advantage will outweigh this extra cost at the outset," he says.
Durban says it was also thinking long-term when it decided to build a new 70,000-seat stadium a few metres from a 52,000-seat rugby stadium.
The port city plans to throw its hat in the ring for the 2024 Olympics and has equipped Moses Mabhida Stadium with an athletics track, as well as a 106-metre arch with inbuilt cable car, to boost its bid.
But that stadium too has been shrouded in skepticism. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that the city cannot afford it," Brian Van Zyl, manager of the Sharks rugby team that is based at the adjacent Absa Stadium said in 2006.
Back then the stadium was predicted to cost 1.6 billion. Three years later, the cost has nearly doubled to 3.1 billion rand and the Sharks are coming under growing pressure to move in.
"You have to invest in infrastructure to proceed from being a developing country to a developed country," says Errol Heynes, World Cup director in Port Elizabeth, the country's fifth-largest city, which gained a 1.9-billion-rand stadium.
Although Port Elizabeth has no Premier League football or Super 15 rugby team, "it will never, ever be a white elephant," he assured the German Press Agency dpa, predicting a thriving business in exhibition games and conferences.
Polokwane in northern Limpopo province and Nelspruit in north- eastern Mpumalanga have also gained new 45,000-seat stadiums, each costing 1.3 billion rand. Two schools were requisitioned by the builders at Nelspruit's Mbombela stadium, sparking violent protests.
More protests over basic services also appear on the cards in Johannesburg, which slashed its budget by 1 billion rand this year to cover overruns at Soccer City, the 3.4-billion-rand nearly-new venue for the opening game and final.
Danny Jordaan, chief executive of the 2010 local organizing committee chief has defended the spending, saying: "All of the infrastructure programs gave jobs to 415,000 people during this period where most people are shedding jobs, so I think the World Cup has made a contribution."
Source: Earthtimes, via I Luv SA
R4.5bn stadium to let for R1/yr
Julian Rademeyer
2009-10-04 16:33
Cape Town is set to sign away the R4.5bn Green Point super-stadium - for just R1 a year.
Despite fears the stadium will become a costly "white elephant" after the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the city is pushing ahead with a controversial deal with a French-South African consortium. The city hopes to receive a 30% share of the after-tax profits from the SAIL Stadefrance Operating Company.
But if the operator does not make a profit, however, the city will recover just R1 a year in rent while spending millions more on maintaining the stadium. To be viable the stadium will have to host between 20 and 40 events a year.
The city's 2010 officials are hopeful that the lease will be endorsed by the city council when it meets on October 28.
The deal is heavily skewed in favour of SAIL Stadefrance, represented by Springbok rugby great Morné Du Plessis - so much so that one independent legal expert said this week: "The only reason a landlord would concede so much is because they know they have a white elephant on their hands and they don't know what to do with it."
Dave Hugo, Cape Town's 2010 technical director, disagrees. "I honestly believe it is going to be an asset...We certainly don't see it being a white elephant. To achieve that we have to sweat the asset.
World best
He believes that SAIL Stadefrance is a "world best". "The city is not in the business of running international stadiums....If they can't make it work, no-one can."
"It won't be a walk in the park", Du Plessis concedes. "On any basis, it is going to be tough."
He believes a "fair deal was hammered out" in the lease despite suggestions the city was "out-manoeuvred and out-negotiated" by the consortium's lawyers.
"Fifty percent of the critics say the stadium can't sustain itself; another 50% say our deal is too good."
But Ralph Malan, a retired engineer and vehement opponent of the stadium, says the project has been "bedevilled from start to finish with official deception of the public".
"The stadium is going to haemorrhage money."
Estimates of what it will cost to maintain vary considerably. Early figures suggested it would cost as little as R1.3m a year but others range as high as R30m and even R150m a year.
Du Plessis said initial costs would be low as "everything is new and under guarantee".
"As they age, stadia do start costing money and we understand that, but there is a limit to the commercial return we can generate."
David Polovin, a lawyer and businessman who led a ratepayers' investigation into the merits of the stadium says that while it "brought with it a lot of infrastructural benefits for Cape Town", he is concerned that the city agreed to share a percentage of the "profits".
Little choice
"It is a fundamental weakness that the lease comes down to a share of the profits. What motive is there for the stadium operators to show a profit? Profit means tax and it means they have to share with the city. So all they have to do is eliminate profit with expenses.
"Any shrewd businessman knows how to hide income in expenses."
But Polovin believes Cape Town was in an impossible position and had little choice but to accept the terms of the lease.
"There were very few contenders for post-2010 operators. The operator dictated the lease to them."
Hugo says there are no guarantees, but the operator's business plans project the stadium will run at a profit "except for the first couple of months".
"We believe the operating costs of the stadium will, at least, break even and not burden the ratepayer. There are no guarantees of course and time will tell."
Du Plessis says an anchor tenant which will draw 10 to 12 large matches a year is key to the stadium's success. "We can then build an event strategy around that." SAIL Stadefrance are currently in tentative talks with Cape Town's two big soccer clubs, Ajax Cape Town and Santos.
But real negotiations can only take place once the lease is signed and sealed. "All we have at the moment is the potential for an events strategy," Du Plessis says.
"We have got our work cut out for us." - City Press
Source & *Related*: News 24/City Press, via I Luv SA
** Capetown faces Huge Maintenance Bill
** Rates & Taxes Increases to Pay for 2010 Stadiums
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