Ellis Park Stadium

Johannesburg’s Ellis Park Stadium is located in the south-western part of New Doomfontein, Johannesburg’s central business district. The Ellis Park Stadium is also known as the Coca-Cola Park. The stadium was first constructed in 1928 and was built exclusively for rugby. Decades from then, in 1982, the Ellis Park Stadium was pulled down and renovated, again for the sole purpose of playing host to the sport of rugby. The stadium was recently retouched for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The stadium is named so after its ‘patron’ JD Ellis, a Johannesburg city councilor, who reserved 13 acres of land for the purpose of setting up the stadium.

The Ellis Park Stadium is capable of playing host to a crowd of around 62,000 fans and is noted for its VIP areas, media facilities, team whirlpools and pitch. It also boasts of a world-class audio-visual setup and a unique ‘friendliness’ towards disabled fans. The stadium, in the past has hosted myriad sporting events, and recently even hosted the finals of the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup between the United States of America and Brazil. The Ellis Park is also home to the Orlando Pirates, one of South Africa’s most loved and followed clubs.

South Africa’s sporting fans will always recognize and love the Ellis Park Stadium for the fact that it hosted the finals of the 1995 Rugby World Cup. The finals saw South Africa face-off against New Zealand. A resolute South Africa fought hard against the shocked Kiwis to lift the 1995 Rugby World Cup trophy. The stadium is also infamous for the stampede that it witnessed during a football match between the Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs in 2001. 40 fan lost their lives in a stadium that was packed with roughly around 1, 20,000 spectators.

The Ellis Park Stadium, as a FIFA World Cup 2010 match venue, will host five group matches, one second round match and one of the quarter finals.

The schedule for the matches to be held at the Ellis Park Stadium is given below.