Official host city for the 2010 FIFA World CupTM
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| Back on the football map |
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| Written by Ndaba Dlamini | |
| Tuesday, 10 June 2008 | |
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Dobsonville Stadium has had its ups and downs, but the refurbishment taking place for the World Cup is a high point for football in the community.
MOEKETSI STEVEN NKATLO, 77, has fond memories of Dobsonville Stadium, one of the city’s football fields undergoing a revamp ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. 
Moeketsi Nkatlo has fond memories of the old Dobsonville Stadium
Dobsonville was established in 1957 when people from Roodepoort West were resettled in the area. There were a number of football grounds but the venue off Main Road was the most popular, according to Nkatlo. “When Dobsonville’s top teams played, we used to fence the ground using old sacks so that people could pay to watch the game. The local teams from Dobsonville at that time were Motherwells, Rangers and the Mighty Greens.” But the sack-fencing did not suit the image of the Roodepoort-Maraisburg-Dobsonville Football Association, formed to manage the sport in the area. “This is when Dobsonville as a community and the council decided to build a stadium that could accommodate big crowd-pullers like Moroka Swallows and Orlando Pirates … The idea came to fruition in 1974 and the stadium was completed in 1975.” It became the focus of football in the area and many big premiership matches were played there. But a slump in soccer fever led to the stadium being under-used in the ensuing years, Nkatlo says. “The ‘stop-nonsense’ [the pre-cast concrete wall] around the stadium was vandalised and, without any security … people began to steal pipes and other stadium fittings. Dobsonville Stadium became a ruin.” Without any big matches at the venue, the township became “dull” and Nkatlo, together with Phillip Mashao, then president of the Roodepoort-Maraisburg- Dobsonville Football Association, decided to rebuild it. “We invited community members and a fact-finding group was formed to do research and come up with the best way to make sure that security was not breached when the stadium was refurbished. The group toured Orlando Stadium, Rand Stadium and other established stadiums around Johannesburg.” The community came up with a solution – a concrete wall that could not easily be vandalised. By the end of 1985 the perimeter fence was put up at a cost of “a couple of million rands”. With its past glory restored, Moroka Swallows made the Dobsonville Stadium its home ground. Big teams like Witbank Black Aces and Pirates and came to play again. Its popularity led the Premier Soccer League (PSL) to try to cash in on revenue generated at matches. It proposed a deal with the local football association to share gate-takings from league games; the local association refused. “When the deal fell through the PSL [banned] Moroka Swallows from using the stadium as its home ground, and the association and the stadium began to lose income,” Nkatlo says. “The local football teams also lost interest and the stadium became under-utilised again.” It was thrown a lifeline, however, when the City of Johannesburg decided to refurbish it. Costing R69-million, the refurbishments include new seating and a new roof covering the western grandstand. The original stadium consisted of embankments on the eastern, southern and northern sides, but these are now being converted into stands. The area surrounding the stadium is also being spruced up. Dobsonville Civic Association leader Japhta Lekgetho says the refurbishment will put Dobsonville back on the football map. “There is also community involvement in the building of the stadium. I only wish that the roof could have covered the whole stadium, not only the western side. But we are thankful to the City for building such a beautiful stadium.” Nkatlo has another wish: “I wish the City would consider changing Dobsonville Stadium and naming it after one of Dobsonville’s greatest soccer developers, Phillip Mpola Mashao, who passed away in 2006.” Although he is gradually losing his eyesight because of glaucoma, Nkatlo is looking forward to the 2010 World Cup and believes Brazil, Italy or France will be the winners. “I also hope that these teams will come and play their practice matches at Dobsonville Stadium. That would be an unforgettable present for me.”
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