I doubt the shadows will be a problem – the designers are to samrt to have “forgotten” about something so important, and no seat is further than 140m from the pitch. (The international norm is a maximum of 190m), so the athletic track won’t matter.

There is an amazing feeling of scape in the stadium – I believe that even when it is jam-packed, it will still feel the same – the seats are great and the facilities for people with disabilities are unbelievable.

So don’t buy into the rumours of doom and gloom- come to South Africa – if you don’t have ticket,s come and party in our fan parks and see the country.

Interestingly enough, just had word from someone who was in SA for the Confederations Cup though not in Durban. He said that in the city centre remits in J-Burg and Bloemfontain he felt safe and calm despite hookers and pimps drifting around outside hotels in numbers. In a country with 1 in 3 HIV this is distressing especially with dimwitted football fans milling around. However, as soon as he got in a car and drove anywhere he felt anxious and scared. The reasons were such:

-Poor roads
-Dimly lit streets
-Roaming male drifters wandering around in the dark in groups.

Another bit of info was from a senior ‘England Fans’ representative who was in Johannesburg. He shall be nameless. He visited venues, met organisers and checked out inner city areas. His overall assumption was it could be a ‘nightmare’ for fans especially as many go without tickets. He also spoke of how stewarding at the Confederations Cup was a disaster. A vast amount of stewards were being paid a mizerly poor sum in wages per hour and salary per game by stewarding chiefs.

A number of strikes were held by stewards minutes before games in an effort to get better wages. These involved walking out and and people being sacked on the spot and replaced 1 hour before games by less experienced and trained staff. There are stadium infrastructural issues outwith the grounds and prominant in this is access from city centres areas and the stewarding issue were exploitation of poor workers is commonplace. The news of the Durban ground would suggest city centre access may not be a problem.

Every tournament were new stadia has been created will leave a trail of contruction work completed a few days previous (In Portugal Euro 2004 some of the areas around the Aviero and Liera stadia included poor bus transfers to the city, and newly laid roads and footpath areas. ) This was not too much of a problem in a country like Portugal where you can wonder back aimlessly enjoying the sun along dusty footpaths following others. But late at night in South Africa it will be cold, dark and bleak and scary.

I think that stadia looks great; is located in very close proximity to the city centre and beach areas. It all sounds great. But whether the stadia in other venues will prove to be as attractive and potentially safe as this one seems then we will have have to wait and see.