Following today’s announcement on East Coast Radio, The Sharks wish to confirm that they will not be playing their Vodacom Super 14 rugby at the Moses Mahbida Stadium in 2010. The venue for all of their upcoming games will be The Absa Stadium Durban.
Brian van Zyl, Sharks CEO, stated: “I would like to reiterate what I said last year, that we are still in ongoing discussions with the City and at this point, no decision has been made whether or not to move across to the new stadium. For a decision to be made, we would need to have in-depth consultations with all the stakeholders, together with our equity partner Supersport.
The City has, however, put forward a request to The Sharks to play a friendly early next year at the new stadium in order to try out the field conditions. At this stage, nothing has been confirmed as we would still need to determine where we will be playing our pre-season warm-up games.”
We will be posting a schedule of all our warm-up games via our website, sharksrugby.co.za, as soon as they are confirmed.
Issued by The Sharks Communication Dept
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i think we got it first time 😉
@rekinek (retreat -ing) (Comment 1) : Its been done like that on purpose. For the Bulls supporters to understand. 😀
@rekinek (retreat -ing) (Comment 1) : let me fix it
@mbayshark (Comment 2) : hehehehehe
@mbayshark (Comment 2) : why should we bother – let them go to Moses
@war1 (Comment 3) : whoops 🙂
@robdylan (Comment 6) : i think i managed to confuse wordpress, still does not seem to be coming right, let me work on it again
@mbayshark (Comment 2) :
@rekinek (retreat -ing) (Comment 1) :
i think our birthday boy has jumped into the Champagne bottel
WAR1…go and read the rules – it says you are not allowed to post drunk!! 😉
happy Birthday (for the 3rd time!)
i think that is better now, seriously, i just copied and pasted, no alcohol was had by me today, not even cough mixture
@GI Ice (Bulletproof) (Comment 9) :
@war1 (Comment 10) : that’s the problem with bdays on mondays 🙄
@rekinek (retreat -ing) (Comment 11) :
Not allowed to take cough mixture?? 😉
@GI Ice (Bulletproof) (Comment 12) : he he, just emphasizing my point, i dont like too much alcohol, like i said once before, call me conservative, but I’ll have one tonight I’m sure
@war1 (Comment 13) :
I am not, so I’ll have a bottel on you!!
Enjoy!
@GI Ice (Bulletproof) (Comment 12) : cough mixture – such a treachery thing. 🙄
Still not sure why it was built, always thought having two huge stadiums, like that, next to each other was ridiculous, you could never stage a football and rugby match on the same day it would be chaos, So why not upgrade the shark tank or would that be too logical for SA. Rather build a brand new stadium and waste millions of tax payer’s money and end up with a white elephant, because somewhere along the line, economics will dictate that the sharks move to the bigger stadium!!
@Whindy (Comment 16) : Kick-backs on a new stadium a lot more than on an ‘mere’ upgrade. 😉
the sharks were never going to move to the stadium next year. rugby damages the field too much. this is one of the problems loftus, ellis and bloem are going to have as the super 14 ends next year. so this article is premature. talks are probably still on the go about a move in 2011. the sharks also have to have a meeting with all the suite holders and roleplayers before a decision can be made, so they have to deny the rumours.
@Whindy (Comment 16) : simply put durban has been eyeing the olympics for over a decade now, the new stadium has been built with that in mind. not many cities in the world can boast as many sporting facilities in a square mile. durban has set themselves up in a big way for the hosting of the 2020 olympics. another reason is kings park is at its peak now. no upgrades could better it significantly. mm has a lot of upgrade potentual as well as it is a modern stadium.
@try time (Comment 19) : But the stadiums are not designed with the Olympics in mind, where are you going to build the main stadium??
@Whindy (Comment 20) : mm is an olympic stadium, hence the athletics track. add kp as the soccer, rugby stadium. dcc used for golf. the old athletics stadium for warming up and practice, as well as the odd minor athletics event. kp pool swimming and waterpolo. there is even an equestrian area and stables for show jumping. and the upgrade costs are negligable compared to what any other cities in sa would have to pay to get their sports area ioc ready.
@try time (Comment 21) : Makes sense I did not realise it housed athletics as well, well lets hope it comes true, I would move down there for that, my sister lives in Sydney and was there during the Olympics and said it was a wonderful experience
@Whindy (Comment 16) :
@try time (Comment 19) :
Dudes – Absa Stadium is …how am I gonna say this… “old”. It’s actually falling apart…
I don’t think an upgrade would’ve been worth it or even possible- at least an upgrade to the level that Moses Mabhida is in.
A compromise will have to be reached somehow…
@blackshark (Comment 23) : My only problem with the MM is will you have the same atmosphere, what with a track inbetween the field and the stadium, tend to loose it but otherwise I would agree with what you are saying!!
@Whindy (Comment 24) :
I suppose they took that into consideration – the design seems to be more “sound-retaining” compared to ABSA…but this is only from my observation.
@blackshark (Comment 25) : But with the track around the field it puts the action further away from the supporters. If you end up sitting behind the posts, you will need binoculars to follow the action at the other posts! But I agree that the tank is looking quite old.
@Sharksmad – The Blog’s Dudette (Comment 26) : And MM looks fantastic can’t wait to go on the official tour, its in November sometime I believe when it will be officially open to the public and you can take a ride up to the top of the arch!
SO the ABSA stadium could still become a thing of the past!??!
SO the ABSA stadium could still become a thing of the past!??!!
@Hmmm (Comment 28) : @Hmmm (Comment 29) :
Just in case anyone missed it the first time…lol
@Whindy (Comment 16) :
It’s about as ridiculous as building a brand new state of the art stadium/concert venue in the middle of a gang ran ghetto like they did here. It is so bad that the police literally put up barricades from the stadium to the parking garage (a street or two away) and funnel everyone leaving into them bc otherwise you are taking your life into your own hands because if you were to take a shortcut outside of the barricades and get into trouble they won’t be able to come to your aid bc they are shorthanded.
@try time (Comment 19) : Dream on. Durban is too much of a dump for the Olympics.
The Olympics WILL be held in Cape Town!!