Sport stadiums in SA - how do they compare

Lets look at the various Sanzar countries and the main stadia available comapring them and start with SA:-

Cape Town  -   Newlands,  Green Point Stadium

Port Elizabeth -  Nelson Mandela Stadium

Durban - Moses Madibha Stadium, Kingspark Stadium

Bloemfontein -  Springbok Park Stadium

Johanesburg -  Ellis Park, Soccer City,  Soweto Stadium

Pretoria -  Loftus Versfeld

Nelspruit -  Mbombela Stadium

Of the above there are five tradional stadiums - Newlands, Ellis Park, Loftus Versfeld,  Kings Park and Springbok Park.   Loftus versveld and Springbok Park has been upgarded drastically with a view ot the 2010 Soccer World Cup.     All the other stadiums were built specifically for the Soccer World Cup.  

Basically7 the available stadia is much bigger seating wise and much more modern than most of the stadiums in New Zealand and Australia.   New Zealand has the roof-covered stadium in Dunedin - while Austraiahas the Olymic Stadia in Melbourne and Sydney - which seating wise is slightly bigger than the SA stadiums.   

Howevr, in essense from a staium perspective the SA stadia is of better quality than the NZ and Australia stadia.   

The problem is that three of the Stadia mentioned (Kingspark, Newlands and Ellis Park) have been at the heart of SA Rugby for decades and they may fall away in the next decade.  I cannot forsee that any of the three will be upgraded - and there is th danger that they do not comply with legislative requirements anymore.   All stadia in SA has been given notice that they must upgrade the stadia to ensure public safety - but the norms has been set very high and it will cost a fortune to upgrade those to meet requirements.   They have been given 2 years notice - exppiring in 2016 -  to upgrade the stadiums or their licences would be withdrawn to operate rugby or other sporting activities.   I cannot see how the rugby franchises would spend billions on stadia upgrading, since the cities are well-served with other modern  stadia, chances are that thy will be closed down by 2016.              

A major problem with many of the new 2010 Soccer World Cup stadiums is that the requirements of rugby were not incorporated in their design. Many (if not all) of them were built with the in goal area far too small thus creating a safety hazard to the players.

The playing field on many if them are also covered with a grass type required by soccer that are far too dainty for rugby because they can not withstand rough handling like scrums, mauls and line-outs.