Dry pitches create Cape Town soccer drought
CITY AND AJAX FORCED TO PLAY ‘HOME’ GAMES AT KWAZULU-NATAL VENUES
Cape Town City are close to concluding a deal with their city council to take over the old Hartleyvale Stadium and rebuild it into a soccer-specific stadium for future matches.
The deal is close to being finalised just as City enter into another war of words with the council over the use of the city’s World Cup stadium and both the club and their neighbours Ajax Cape Town have been forced to move matches out of the city because of the unavailability of venues.
The drought in the Western Cape has wreaked havoc on sports facilities but City are also unhappy football is not being given priority at the Cape Town Stadium, which is unavailable over the next fortnight as it plays host to the weekend’s World Rugby Sevens.
Hartleyvale used to be the home of the old Cape Town City and the city’s main football venue – as well as the headquarters of Western Province soccer – but has fallen into a state of disrepair.
City want to lease the ground from the council and rebuild it into a compact 20,000-capacity stadium which will be perfect for the club’s requirements.
Talks about the project have been on-going for months and City officials are confident the process is well on track, although they are having to go through mountains of paper work and hours of meetings to get there.
But the delicate negotiations have not stopped the club from taking yet another pot shot at the council after a lack of available stadia forced them to move tonight’s home game against Maritzburg United to KwaMashu in Durban.
That will no doubt affect the thinking of punters who might otherwise have believed City would be good for a home win, but who must now play the fixture in the home province of their opponents.
Previously City were angry with the Cape Town City Council for not helping them with a training facility, even though they are a private institution, and last week got coach Benni McCarthy to front a bitter complaint over the use of the main stadium.
City’s neighbours Ajax host this Saturday’s home match against Chippa United in Johannesburg because, with a lack of water available for the pitch, Athlone Stadium is unfit to play on, having turned into a veritable sand patch.
Ajax are strong at home, but have a dismal record on the road and although this is their ‘home’ game, it is a huge blow to have to play it out of the Cape.
All the National First Division games that were originally scheduled for the Athlone Stadium have been moved to Parow Park, but this has not been approved for use by top-flight clubs.