Cape Town City FC have confirmed their plans to build a 10 000-seater stadium in the Mother City to serve as a permanent home for the newly-formed Premiership club.
Currently the surprise joint league leaders play their home ties at the 55 000-capacity Cape Town Stadium, as well as at Athlone Stadium, that holds 34 000, to significant losses.
The goal for the ambitious club is to have a more manageable stadium to call their own that they can fill every week, by establishing a loyal fan base and creating an exciting match-day experience.
City owner John Comitis told the Weekend Argus that he hopes to have his new facility open by 2019, with the City of Cape Town confirming it had indeed received a stadium proposal, with just a formal application outstanding.
The club’s commercial director Michel Comitis, who revealed the cost of the stadium to be around R250million, added: "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 further explained: "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."
Cape Town mayoral committee member for assets and facilities management Stuart Diamond concluded: "Engagement is at a very early stage... but we look forward to their (Cape Town City’s) application.”
