Newlands Stadium

This article covers the rugby and soccer stadium. For the cricket stadium of the same name, see Newlands Cricket Ground .

Newlands Stadium
Data
place	Cape Town , South Africa
Coordinates	33 ° 58 '13.9 "  S , 18 ° 28' 6.8"  E Coordinates: 33 ° 58 '13.9 "  S , 18 ° 28' 6.8"  E
owner	Western Province Rugby and Football Union
start of building	1888
opening	1890
surface	Natural grass
capacity	51,100 seats
Societies)
Springboks , Stormers , Western Province
Events
1995 Tri Nations Rugby Union World Cup

The Newlands Stadium is a stadium in the South African city of Cape Town , which is mainly used for rugby matches. It holds 51,100 spectators and is the home of the Stormers in super rugby and is used by the South African national team ("Springboks") as a venue for some games at the Tri Nations . The opening game of the 1995 Rugby Union World Cup also took place here. Until the end of the 2004/05 season, the soccer team Ajax Cape Town played regularly in the Newlands Stadium, but has since moved to the Athlone Stadium .

In 1888, the Western Province Rugby and Football Union bought the site on which today's Newlands Stadium stands. The first game was played on May 31, 1890, with a total of 2,400 spectators. The following year, the first rugby game was played in Newlands when the South African national team met the British and Irish Lions . The first grandstands were built in 1919 and were continuously expanded until the 1940s. In the 1950s the infrastructure was expanded, for example elevators and several lounges were created. When the South African Rugby Federation moved its headquarters to Cape Town in the 1970s, many parts of the stadium were renovated and additional functional rooms were built.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the entire stadium was expanded and modernized again with a view to the 1995 Rugby Union World Cup. On May 25th of that year, the opening game of the World Cup between hosts South Africa and Australia was played here. In the wake of the World Cup, the name of the stadium changed constantly due to sponsors. First it was called Norwich Park Newlands, then Fedsure Park Newlands, and later became Newlands again. In 2005 Vodacom bought the rights to the stadium name, but left it with its original name.

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  Springbok fans

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  Aerial view

See also

• List of the largest football stadiums in the world

Web links

• Stadium profile