REVEALED: Why Newlands sale could be delayed further
The fractious sale of the Newlands stadium remains on hold, leaving doubt over the sustainability of Cape Town’s professional teams – the Stormers and Western Province.
Michael Janse van Rensburg, the Chief Executive Officer of Heritage Western Cape, confirmed to @rugby365com that no decision has been reached in the application of former Springbok captain Wynand Claassen to have the venue declared a ‘heritage site’.
The ‘public participation’ concluded at the end of January.
However, the application will only be tabled at an Interpretation Grading and Inventories Committee meeting on Friday, February 17.
“The IGIC will once again assess the nomination documentation, as well as the comments received from the public participation process,” Janse van Rensburg said in a written response to @rugby365com enquiries.
Friday’s meeting may not provide a final answer either and the process – first started when Claassen and his ‘Save Newlands Rugby Stadium‘ campaign filed papers in June 2022 to have the Newlands precinct declared a ‘heritage site’ – could be delayed even further.
“Based on the comments and documents received, the IGIC could require further information in order to make an informed recommendation,” the Heritage CEO said.
“If satisfied with the information, [the IGIC could] make a recommendation to support or not support the proposed nomination to the Heritage Western Cape Council for a final decision.”
Any further delays could have catastrophic implications for the game in Cape Town.
The South African Rugby Union appointed administrator Rian Oberholzer, in a very frank media briefing last month, made it clear there are debts to be paid to get the Western Province Rugby Union back in the black.
If the stadium is not sold to repay those debts – including the +-ZAR200-million owed to the Flyt/Dreamworld property group which holds bonds on all WPRFU properties – there is NO future for Western Province and the Stormers.
“What are the consequences of a successful heritage application?” Oberholzer asked at his media briefing
“It will absolutely mean the end of the Western Province Rugby Football Union as we know it,” he added.
“There is an outstanding amount of money received by the WPRFU from Flyt/Dreamworld that needs to be repaid.
“If Newlands cannot be sold, where will that money come from?
“That is the one very important issue.
“It will affect not only the WPRFU but obviously the company [Western Province Professional Rugby] and the Stormers.”
Since Western Province and the Stormers teams started a new era with the Cape Town Stadium as their home base in 2021, Oberholzer has been hard at work trying to finalise the sale of Newlands Stadium – which was one of the major tasks assigned to him when the union was placed under administration in October 2021.
Some headway was made in February last year when the stadium was placed on the market in a sealed bidding process.
However, Claassen threw a spanner in the works when he launched his bid to have the stadium declared a heritage site
Asked how big the public participation was in the heritage application, Janse van Rensburg told @rugby365com: “There was a great interest showed by the public.”
@king365ed
@rugby365com
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