Durban - The running of the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban will soon fall under the management of the International Convention Centre.
The proposal for the integrated management of the two facilities was expected to be discussed at the executive committee meeting on Tuesday, but mayor James Nxumalo asked for the matter to first be deliberated by relevant portfolio committees.
According to a report to the executive committee, the council began to take over the management and operations of the stadium in July 2013 while it was investigating better means of managing it.
The facility had been under the stewardship of BKS-MMS since it had been opened in 2009 for the 2010 Fifa soccer World Cup.
Two years ago, city manager S’bu Sithole confirmed that the company’s contract had expired.
He also advised the company of a ‘shadow team’ that would work alongside the management team “to gain first-hand operational and management experience in the various stadium activities until the expiry of the existing caretaker operator agreement,” read the report.
For two years the stadium has been managed through a service agreement with Durban Marine Theme Park.
Various studies have been done to establish the best practices required for managing it, with assessment of international benchmarks and models.
“After extensive consultation, and having considered all possible models, the preference was for the Moses Mabhida Stadium to be integrated with the International Convention Centre.
“This was selected as the most appropriate governance and management model for Moses Mabhida Stadium,” the report read.
The advantages were:
- That this would give the opportunity to maximise all various potential income streams.
- That there would be no need to establish a new board – MMS to account to the existing board of the ICC.
- That there were already operational synergies between MMS and the ICC.
- That the integration process could be achieved within existing timelines.
The report said the municipality would create a business unit within the ICC to operate and manage the stadium.
The integration of the two institutions was approved in June.
According to the report, the International Convention Centre board and chief executive had given their approval of the proposal in principle.
The Mercury