No hope for PAM Brink Stadium

The stadium is a historic building in Springs which has sadly been allowed to fall into ruins to the point that it would cost around R30 million to fix.

It was inaugurated on July 2, 1949, with an international rugby match against the All Blacks.

Later, the stadium was used as the Eastern Transvaal home grounds and in 2002, the Springboks beat Argentina 49-29 in front of a crowd of thousands of people.

Not only has the stadium seen legendary sports men and events, but it has stood as a training ground for many other sports men who have gone on to compete at international level.

“The DA is shocked to learn of the state of the stadium and how it has been allowed to fall to such ruins,” says DA member Allan Sauls.

The stadium faces an uncertain future as the sports department informed the Ekurhuleni council oversight committee recently that there were no plans to re-capitalise the stadium and that the metro’s 200% tariff increase could not meet the R30 million cost of getting the sporting field fixed.

“Sport promotes a healthy lifestyle and social unity which could go a long way to healing a society haunted by its past. It is disappointing to see that this 64-year-old multi-use stadium has been allowed to fall into such a state and is indicative of the ruling party’s attitude to sport in general,” says Sauls.

DA ward councillor Dean Stone says that many schools are interested in the stadium.

“The metro doesn’t see that there is actually interest from people in using the stadium, they don’t see the value it can still have to the community. Local schools have to go to Boksburg or Germiston stadiums to hold their sports events even though we have the facilities here, because the metro does not see sport as a priority.”

Stone says in 2006 the cost to repair the stadium was R5 million, but nothing was done about it and the fact that it has been vandalised over the years has resulted in the repair costs rising to R30 million.

He thinks the stadium could have other uses as well if it was fixed up and maintained.

“We have all these festivals and concerts at Carnival City that the stadium would also be able to host, putting it on the map again,” Dean says.

According to Sauls, the sports department is compiling a study to determine what future use the stadium has.

Dean says that the Metro might decide to level the stadium but they have not said what the land will be used for if they do.

“The DA urges interested parties to actively participate in a programme to get PAM Brink Stadium repaired and maintained so that communities in and around Springs have a facility to train the country’s next star athletes,” he says.

At the time of going to print, no comment had been received from the metro. The stadium was not on the agenda in Thursday’s council meeting.