The proposal by a group of former players to have Newlands rugby stadium declared a heritage site could bring an end to Western Province rugby, according to administrators of the union. DYLAN JACK reports.
Since the agreement to move to Cape Town Stadium was put in place more than three years ago, WP Rugby has been engaged in finalising the sale of Newlands Stadium, which is no longer certified to host rugby matches.
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That was one of the major tasks assigned to Rian Oberholzer, designated as the administrator of Western Province Rugby, after it was put under administration by SARU in October 2021.
However, the process to sell Newlands has stalled after a group of former players, led by ex-Springbok Wynand Claassen, placed an application to have the stadium declared as a heritage site.
During a press conference held at Cape Town Stadium on Thursday, Oberholzer briefed the media on where the process to sell Newlands currently stands.
“We have been quite far down the line on the sale of Newlands at the end of last year, with an independent RFP (request for proposal) process that was run, headed up by independent property developers,” Oberholzer said.
“The heritage application, that was made by Mr Wynand Claassen, put a halt to any of the proceedings. The companies that were interested in obtaining the properties around Newlands said they cannot proceed any further until the heritage matter has been resolved. That makes sense, as nobody is going to buy the property when there is a risk that afterwards they cannot utilise for whatever purposes they bought it for.”
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Oberholzer outlined that, due to debts that need to be repaid, failure to sell Newlands could bring the union to its knees.
“Speaking about the consequences, it absolutely would mean the end of Western Province Rugby Football Union as we know it. There is an outstanding amount of money that was received from the WPRFU from Flyt/Dreamworld that needs to be repaid.
“If Newlands cannot be sold, where is that money going to come from? That would affect not only WPRFU, but also the company and the Stormers. So it is important for us to build on the success of the move to Cape Town Stadium.
“There is also a fallacy that Newlands can be revived and rugby can be played there again. While rugby could be played there, the Stormers will never play there again. That is because of the agreement that was reached between the WPRFU, the company and the city.
“We are in a 30-year agreement with the City of Cape Town to play our games in the stadium.”
Oberholzer said that, according to information received from experts on the matter, there is very little legal standing to have Newlands declared a heritage site.
“Our legal opinion that we received from heritage specialist, says there are absolutely no grounds on which Newlands can become a heritage site.
“The only thing is maybe nostalgia. Now, are we going to destroy the WPRFU because of nostalgia? And who’s nostalgia? A small minority that were able to go to Newlands. Should that small group’s nostalgia really destroy this proud rugby union?
“The fact that is is in public participation, we can’t do anything about it . As I said, our legal advice said that there are no grounds for it to be declared a heritage site. We have to go through the process. Everybody, the clubs and public, must be part of the process to ensure that their voice is heard. We cannot allow a few disgruntled rugby supporters to be the ones speaking for us as a community.
“Now that it is in public participation, we are asking the public to support us. Over 100 clubs have agreed to the sale of Newlands, so surely they have the biggest say over whether there is a heritage that needs to be preserved or not.”
Oberholzer outlined that Claassen first contacted him to express interest in the sale of Newlands, but did not submit any official bid.
“Even if the heritage application is successful, we still don’t know what Wynand wants to do with the property once he has turned it into a heritage site. Western Province can never go back there again. We have to understand that.
“The other issue is, who is going to upkeep the stadium? Who is going to pay for whatever plans that Wynand has? The property still belongs to WPRFU, who will still have some sort of obligation to the upkeep of the stadium. Even then, the WPRFU decided to mothball the stadium many years ago.
“What we are concerned about is that an ill-informed process to turn it into a heritage site is going to be so detrimental to Western Province rugby, that I cannot foresee how they will succeed in getting themselves out of that hole. We are also concerned about the motive of the heritage application. It is coming from somebody who has no affiliation to the WPRFU or no affiliation to Newlands Stadium and he is now suddenly the speaker of the stadium’s heritage.
“We must be careful of falling into the rhetoric that this is saving the history of Newlands. We have moved on. We are not going back. That decision has been taken.”
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Oberholzer was joined in the press conference by WP Rugby’s General Manager of Amateur Rugby Danny Jones and Stormers head coach John Dobson.
Jones said that it would cost Western Province too much money to keep upgrading Newlands.
“In 2011-12, PWC did a project for us to find out what it would cost to remain at Newlands. Back then, it was already R150 million, just to do the minimum upgrades to get it to be a good, fair stadium. That was 12 years ago, so today it could probably be around R300 million. We all have fond memories of Newlands, but we cannot deny progress. Cape Town Stadium is now the home of Stormers and Western Province rugby.”
Meanwhile, Dobson outlined that from the players’ perspective, there are very few fond memories of Newlands and that the team is far happier in Greenpoint.
“The transition to playing here in Cape Town has been spectacular, from a playing and team point of view. From the team’s perspective, we are incredibly happy here. These guys have no affiliation with Newlands whatsoever. There is no interest in going back there, no fond memories – even in this team – but they do have very, very fond memories of the Cape Town Stadium already.
“This is where we want to be, want to play, where rugby is going to thrive. We have won 19 games in a row here,” added Dobson. “Newlands is antiquated, old and most of the team have no memories from it.”
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