De Lille punts CT Stadium as new Bok 'home'
This is the message from City of Cape Town Executive Mayor Patricia de Lille, during a media briefing ahead of Round Two of the Sevens World Series.
The tournament, which takes place on Saturday and Sunday, will be hosted in the Cape Town stadium for a second consecutive year,
And De Lille also revealed that the annual South African leg of the World Series will be hosted at the stadium for the next three years.
However, the most significant news to come out of the media briefing was that the city council are locked in negotiations with the South African Rugby Union to host a Springbok Test at the Cape Town Stadium.
De Lille's city council has been at loggerheads with the Western Province Rugby Football Union for years about hosting major rugby matches at the stadium – custom built for the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
In fact the WPRFU even blocked attempts by the City of Cape Town to host a European Cup match between current champions Saracens and French giants Biarritz.
The WPRFU, who recently applied for liquidation, was pressured by its 90 clubs to prevent any major matches from being staged anywhere but Newlands.
However, SARU has the rights to Test matches and cane sell those rights off or stage the matches themselves.
De Lille said all rugby matches ought to be played at the stadium in Greenpoint.
"We are busy negotiating with SARU to host a Springbok Test, which should have happened long ago," De Lille said.
"The reality is, most locals are rugby supporters and I think they deserve a better stadium than Newlands.
"Ideally, we want all future rugby games to be played at the Cape Town Stadium."
De Lille hinted that the WPRFU, who may be forced to sell Newlands to get itself out of a financial pickle with at least ZAR70-million, could become an "anchor tenant" at the Cape Town stadium.
