FNB Stadium – Johannesburg (SA)

The whole world is watching

Around 9,000 kilometres south of Germany the Football World Cup will took place in the year 2010. For the first time on the African continent, and for the first time in South Africa. Already the sporting event of the year, this World Cup will naturally be the cause of special observation. After all, it was not only the host country, but the entire football-mad continent which had to prove itself as a worthy organiser. First and foremost, the opening celebration and the finals are always the true crowd pullers, which have been seen around the world by hundreds of millions of people. For this reason, much needed to be invested, developed and built in order to produce a worthy backdrop. FNB Stadium, known popularly as “Soccer City”, opened in 1989, was already enormous before work started. As an affiliated company of Interbeton, HBM Sportstättenbau brought its stadium expertise to the table and supported the working group Interbeton / Grinaker LTA for the remodelling and expansion. Then the stadium is now the largest in Africa, with 94,000 seats. If full capacity is not required, the football arena can be easily tailored to the size needed by screening off individual areas. 117 boxes, exquisite restaurants, an ultramodern transmission centre and an attractive museum dealing with South African football have all been planned in order to turn “Soccer City” into a world class stadium. Previously an open structure, its tiers are completely roofed in and enclosed by an outer shell, which is reminiscent in form of the traditional African drinking container, the calabash. In this way, the impressive construction, located just before the gates of the million metropolis Johannesburg, symbolises both tradition and the future. Nelson Mandela gave his first speech here after being released from prison, and the funeral service for the resistance fighter Chris Hani also took place here. In other words, it is an important location for the South Africans. In addition to the Football World Cup, the finals of the Rugby World Championship might also take place here in 2011—should South Africa’s efforts to host the event prove successful. The fact that, wherever possible, the companies involved have trained and utilised workers from the neighbouring suburb of Nasrec, creating over 1,000 jobs in the process, is a welcome side effect of the construction project—now in the focus of the world’s attention.