The Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium is a 46,000-seater stadium in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa.
The five-tier, R2 billion (approximately $159 million) Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium was built overlooking the North End Lake, at the heart of the city. It is one of three coastal stadiums built to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It regularly hosts large-scale rugby union and football (soccer) matches. The stadium has also been used as a concert venue.
The stadium was designed to depict South Africa’s National Flower – the King Protea, by Siyabonga Nyezi and Yandisa Dalamba of Holy Cross as part of the Department of Public Works’ National Construction Week Programme in 2006. This was then handed over to Architectural Design Associates (Pty) Ltd and Dominic Bonnesse Architects CC.
It took 30 working months to complete, creating 6 800 jobs in the process and was officially opened on 7 June 2009.
Stadium Tours are conducted on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 11h00 and 15h00. Phone 041 408 8900 to book a tour.
The duration of the tour is 30 minutes and includes access to the VVIP area, the change rooms and upper level of the stadium. For full tours a maximum of 30 people are allowed. Tours for larger groups are conducted as a sit in session in the stadium bowl and are not walk-abouts.
The stadium is named after the administrative district which the stadium is within, the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, itself named after Nelson Mandela, the former President of South Africa. The Nelson Mandela Bay area is made up of the city of Port Elizabeth, the towns of Uitenhage and Despatch, as well as smaller settlements.
The stadium seats 46,000 in addition to 4,000 extra seats temporarily installed for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The seats are of different shades, from light orange to dark red. They are arranged seemingly at random, but this was done to help the stadium appear full at all times. It also means that sun damage is less of a problem and replaced seats are less noticeable. The stadium also boasts 49 hospitality suites, two business lounges, a gymnasium, and lecture and function rooms. There are also two conference rooms situated on the first level, which are able to accommodate 200 people.
There are four ramps for easy wheelchair access, three VIP/VVIP lifts, two in the West Stand and one in the East Stand, as well as four service lifts, two on the west and two on the east of the stadium. Four additional lifts are planned for the legacy phase. There are 32 turnstiles and colour-coded gates on level 2 for spectators to access their seats and four ramps leading up from level 2 to level 5.
Two big viewing screens (12.7m x 7.2m) were installed for live coverage of the activities on the field. There are a total of 74 toilet blocks (male and female) – 36 blocks on level 2 – 4 blocks on level 3 – 14 blocks on level 4 and 20 blocks on level 5.
Parking inside the stadium is provided across five parking zones, providing a total of 500 parkings utilised by working staff, anchor tenants, event organisers and hospitality guests.
In January 2017 the Mandela Bay Development Agency will take over the management of the stadium from Access Management.
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