South African Premiership football club Cape Town City has confirmed plans to build a 10,000-capacity stadium in the city by 2019.
The newly formed club is currently playing its home games at Cape Town Stadium (pictured) and Athlone Stadium, which have a capacity of 55,000 and 34,000, respectively.
The club’s owner John Comitis said he hopes to build a more manageable stadium, without the burden of significant losses it has had at the two larger grounds.
The City of Cape Town confirmed it had received a stadium proposal, with only a formal application outstanding, the Weekend Argus newspaper reported.
The club’s commercial director Michel Comitis said the cost of the stadium would be around R250m (€18m/£15.5m/$19m).
According to the Sport24.co.za website, Comitis said: “The game-by-game financial loss increases at Athlone Stadium, compared to Cape Town Stadium, due to slightly higher costs and lower attendance numbers. We feel it is a direction all clubs in the PSL should consider.
“Our primary goal is to find a facility where we can train and call our home. To date, we do not even have one field.
“By playing games at these facilities we have endured R600,000 in losses. These numbers only represent the amounts between the start of the season and now. They will rise by the end of the season.”
John Comitis added: “If it bursts at the seams, then we can look at other plans. At this stage, there isn’t a club in the country that can get 10,000 fans at a game – not even Chiefs or Pirates in their home games.”
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