David Whitley checks out South Africa’s most impressive new World Cup venue – and goes climbing up the arch of Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium.
Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban
From afar, Durban’s new multi-million pound stadium looks a little like a rip-off of the new Wembley. Its big white arch stretches high above the pitch and stands, branding itself on the skyline.
But up close – and, more specifically, from on top of said arch – the Moses Mabhida Stadium is rather unique.
The 70,000 capacity venue has been built specifically for the 2010 World Cup. It will host seven matches, including one of the semi-finals, but fears of the stadium becoming a giant white elephant hang over the city.
2020 Olympics in Durban, South Africa?
It is too large for the purposes of the local football and cricket teams. And, although the Sharks rugby team could just about fill the Moses Mabhida, it owns the ABSA stadium next door. Moving doesn’t seem to make much financial sense.
There is ambitious talk of Durban bidding for the 2020 Olympics but, as things stand, the great hope for the Moses Mabhida appears to be in tourism. For, as our guide Sam says, “This is more than just a stadium.”
Professional Stadium Tour
He’s right. The ‘professional’ stadium tour alone shows that it goes beyond the bog standard. From the ultra-luxurious dressing rooms and specially commissioned giant artworks made from beads by local women, everything seems designed to impress.
But where the Moses Mabhida is genuinely unique is the range of bizarre activities available. Durban’s flashy new landmark is something of an adventure playground as well, and the Y-shaped arch – mimicking the two-becomes-one ensign on the South African flag – is for more than mere decoration.
Skycar at Moses Mabhida Stadium
Trundling up the solo branch is a funicular railway. The Skycar stops at a 106m-high platform on the top of the arch. The plan is to use this platform as a dining area for corporate shindigs, but most of the time it is where the Skycar meets the puffing and panting walkers coming up from the other side.
Adventure Walk, Durban
It’s something of a hard slog up the second branch of the Y. 550 steps worth of hard slog to be precise. The Adventure Walk sees visitors attached to the stadium via harnesses and safety chains – it’s the spiritual cousin of the BridgeClimb over Sydney Harbour.
And it is these safety chains, rather than the steps, that prove to be the hardest work. To stop anyone stumbling and falling down, there are a series of catches all the way up. These can only be passed if the lock on your chain is passed over them at the right angle.
Initially, this leads to all manner of kicking, yanking and general violence, until the optimal method becomes clear. Stand at the other side of the step, keep your arm low then whip the chain like you’re throwing a Frisbee and you positively race up. You end up feeling the burn in your shoulders as much as your legs.
Stadium bungy swing in Durban
Just before the trudge to the top reaches its climax, you reach the top ‘rung’ of the pseudo-ladder that joins the two branches of the arch. And people are preparing to jump off it.
The Big Rush Big Swing is the most gloriously absurd use of the new stadium. It’s a giant bungee-style swing that allows punters to leap out and swoop in a 220m arc over the pitch. Unfortunately, this option is not available during matches, although it would liven up a drab 0-0 slugfest immeasurably.
As the kings and queens of the swingers whoop their way over the turf, we finally reach the top of the arch. Surprisingly, the views of the pitch itself from the crest are dreadful – you have to lean over the glass barrier to an almost dangerous extent to get a glimpse of grass.
Durban skyline
But the views of Durban itself – the beaches, the high rises and the race-against-time construction work on a series of new public spaces for the World Cup – are majestic.
The stadium’s post-World Cup future is a little hazy. Unless the city’s sports teams move in, the pitch could be left virtually untouched while thousands of tourists clamber over and swing from the bits that most stadiums reserve solely for floodlights. It’s the equivalent of buying a 3.1bn rand (£273m) present, and discovering that everyone just wants to play with the packaging.
This article was originally written for Metro.
Copyright David Whitley
