Ethekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda has projected a huge financial spin-off for the city, saying they are set to coup close to R44 million through the tourism sector for the MTN8 final on Saturday.
The MTN8 final will be contested by defending champions and record winners Orlando Pirates against Mamelodi Sundowns at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday (18:00).
As Durban is dubbed as the warmest city in the country and a favourite destination to many, all tickets were sold within 18 hours after going on sale last week, which will result in a huge spin-off of the city in the tourism sector.
“To host the cup final, this is a vote of confidence to the city and state of art sports facility that we have,” said Kaunda at the MTN8 press conference final in Umhlanga on Thursday.
“We are confident that this event will once again position Ethekwini as a preferred destination for major sporting events. It will also allow us to showcase the competitiveness of our city in terms of sports tourism as we all know that such events have the potential of growing thousands of visitors to our shores, particularly football.
“This cup final came to Durban at the time when we just launched our season summer holiday campaign where we are promoting our hidden gems, encouraging visitors to come to Durban during the upcoming festive season.
“This campaign is already beginning to yield positive results as we continue to draw thousands of visitors, holidaymakers to our city every week…
“For the MTN8 cup final, the city is expecting 54000 visitors and direct spending of R43, 7 million and the contribution of R108 million to the city’s GDP during this event only.
“In terms of employment opportunities, we anticipate and project around 280 jobs that will be created and more than during this period.”
Durban, when it comes to cup finals, especially in the MTN8, has come under a lot of criticism, with fans in other provinces airing their views that the city always gets preferential treatment from the league and the sponsor.
Vusi Mazibuko, who is the Moses Mabhida Stadium manager, previously said they will remain aggressive in the market to get better content for the venue, hosting close to 12 games per annum.
Kaunda says they are taking advantage of the warm weather in Durban and on top of that they have the capacity to deliver when called upon.
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“The reason we keep on hosting these major events, firstly the (warm) weather is on our side,” said Kaunda.
“We are not competing with anyone, that is the conversation that can’t be created – we are given this weather. The weather presents summer even during winter, so people enjoy our weather.
“Beaches will be open in the city but we are making serious investments in our infrastructure. That is why when the assessments are conducted on who will have the capacity to host events of this magnitude, we find that the city has been identified because we do have the capacity and we have delivered, we have never disappointed.
“We have delivered as a city in major events and all of them have become huge successes.”
