Soccer City Stadium, Designed by Populous, to host the first match of the World Cup tonight

London – Friday 11 June

Soccer City Stadium, Johannesburg, designed by global architects Populous in collaboration with Boogertman Urban Edge & Partners will today host the opening match of the 2010 World Cup when South Africa play Mexico. The inspirational design stemmed from the African melting pot or ‘Calabash’ and has created an iconic and visually stunning centre piece for the World Cup that adds to the historical heritage of the venue where Nelson Mandela gave his first speech after being released from prison.

Commenting on today’s opening, Damon Lavelle, Populous’ Project Lead for Soccer City said:

“The Soccer City project gave us an incredible opportunity to enhance a piece of African history and design a stadium that would be instantly associated with the African continent. All eyes will be on Johannesburg and the stadium on the opening night of the first World Cup to be held Africa. We hope that Soccer City will be a showpiece for the Johannesburg community and Africa for many years to come and provide the fans with an incredible experience at the World Cup.”

The stadium itself has taken 3 years to complete, used 9,000 tonnes of reinforced concrete and has created employment for hundreds of people in the local area. The legacy from this project goes much further than just the stadium – a self‐sustaining training centre was established by the Soccer City Project to enable local workers to get involved with the project and develop their skills for future employment well past the World Cup itself, this centre assessed some 907 unemployed learners and trained 798 learners.

From a design perspective, the stadium has a curvilinear facade made up of fibre reinforced concrete panels, in a selection of 8 colours and 2 textures, which reference the shades and textures of the African landscape. The bowl shape of the stadium mirrors that of the Calabash and sits on a raised podium 

outlined by the perimeter fence and turnstiles which are covered in an orange canopy and illuminated red thus creating ‘a pit of fire’ to naturally fire the ‘Calabash’.

Key stadium facts:

- Total capacity of the stadium: 92,000 seats

- Total size of the site: 254,700 sqm

- Number of turnstiles: 170

- Grassed area: 11,232 sqm

- Stadium was recently voted best 2010 stadium at the Prestigious SAPOA Excellence Awards

- Building facts:

 > 9,000 tonnes of reinforced steel

 > 7,100 tonnes of structural roofing steel

 > 1,100 toilets