World Cup Stadium Profile: Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Rustenberg

Venues And Conditions / Ben Lyttleton / 17 March 2010 / Leave a comment Free £25 Bet

It's the venue where England will be playing USA in their opening match of the tournament as well as hosting four other group matches. And if the football all gets a bit much for you and safaris and casinos are more your thing, you don't have far to travel, says Ben Lyttleton.

"One wonderful thing about the Royal Bafokeng, named after the Bafokeng,
meaning "People of the Dew", is its location: situated between the bush of
the Pilanesberg and the bright lights of Sun City, the venue will be a big
draw for safari-seeking World Cup tourists."

One of the newest existing stadia hosting matches at the World Cup, the
Royal Bafokeng opened in 1999 and is completely funded by the Royal Bafokeng community, an administrative body presiding over the world's richest
platinum mines.

The stadium was built in a saddle shape to reflect its natural surroundings and upgrades were completed in March 2009 for the hosting of four matches during last summer's Confederations Cup. The stadium's latest upgrade has increased the capacity from 39,000 to 42,000, and it will be full for all its matches this summer, not least the first group game it hosts, between England and USA on June 12.

There are four other tasty-looking group games at the Royal Bafokeng - Ghana-Australia, Mexico-Uruguay, Denmark-Japan and New Zealand-Slovakia ­ and there will be one Round of 16 match. The stadium also doubles up as a rugby union and athletics venue, and is the only World Cup venue to have an athletics track around the outside of the pitch ­ not ideal for fans wanting to get close to the action.

One wonderful thing about the Royal Bafokeng, named after the Bafokeng, meaning "People of the Dew", is its location: situated between the bush of the Pilanesberg and the bright lights of Sun City, the venue will be a big draw for safari-seeking World Cup tourists.

Sun City is billed as Africa's top holiday resort, incorporating the area's most luxurious hotel, the Palace of the Lost City, which offers guests hot air balloon rides, a 25-hectare jungle and a life-size sculpture of a mythical elephant called Shawu. "Sun City is the place to go to relax and it's one of the most beautiful places in South Africa but there are lots of other great sights in the area," says Kaizer Chiefs and South Africa goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune.

Of those other places, Pilanesburg Game Reserve, the fourth largest park in South Africa, is probably the jewel in the crown. Covering a 55,000-hectare area where the fabled Big Five of lion, elephant, buffalo, leopard and rhinoceros, all roam free, it's a superb stop-off point for World Cup fans seeking some big game of a non-football kind.

The stadium does not have a great footballing pedigree: it hosts South African side Platinum Stars, although many teams including Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and Jomo Cosmos have used it as their home venue while their stadia were unavailable. South Africa beat Burkina Faso 2-1 in a 2001 World Cup qualifier there but have not played at the stadium since. Its most famous footballing son is Mbulelo Mabizela, nicknamed Old John and briefly on the books at Tottenham Hotspur.

With temperatures around 16°C during winter, altitude at 1500m and the Dutch
enclave of Rustenberg (meaning, "Place of Rest") particularly friendly to
European visitors, this is an ideal base from where England can prepare
their 2010 campaign.

Tags: Rustenberg, World Cup betting. Royal Bafokeng Stadium, World Cup stadiums, World Cup venues