City deny sweetening deal for Chiefs

The City of Cape Town has challenged reports around Kaizer Chiefs playing at the Cape Town Stadium.

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The City of Cape Town has challenged reports around Kaizer Chiefs playing at the Cape Town Stadium, saying that they did not woo the PSL champions to play three “home” games at the venue. And the City has stated that the proposal for Chiefs to play at the stadium has not yet been approved.

Chiefs themselves tweeted on Tuesday that they were “coming to Cape Town”, and the details of their three games at the stadium between December and February have already been listed on the official PSL website.

City mayoral committee member for tourism, events, and economic development, Garreth Bloor, yesterday said that the rights owner to Kaizer Chiefs, Stadium Management South Africa, identified the Cape Town Stadium as a venue for three of their home games due to the unavailability of FNB Stadium for certain dates.

Bloor denied the City had sweetened the deal to attract the Soweto club. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said.

“They will be paying a rental and the Cape Town Stadium’s direct costs. They have gone as far as guaranteeing the projected income from the sale of food and beverages, hospitality and advertising.

“After each match, there will be a cost recovery by both parties as well as 50/50 share in revenue. Kaizer Chiefs is known to draw crowds in excess of 35 000 per weekend match.”

Bloor said in a statement that the City had a responsibility to ratepayers is to ensure the financial viability of the stadium, and that any opportunity to reduce costs related to it should be welcomed.

“Ajax CT does indeed have a multi-year contract, as do a number of other event/conference promoters, but no contract has an exclusivity clause. Neither are we required to seek permission from each entity to host similar events at the stadium,” he added. – Cape Times