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The Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium is a stadium in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa. It was one of the three coastal stadiums which was built to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
It is regularly used as a large-scale rugby union or for football matches. The stadium has also been used as a concert venue.
With the capacity of 42,486 during the 2010 World Cup and 48,000 during the regular football and rugby season, around $270 million was invested to build the stadium.
It is the home ground for Chippa United of Premier Soccer League from 2014 and the home of Rugby teams of Eastern Province Kings playing Currie Cup from 2010, Southern Kings playing Pro 14 from 2013 and South Africa Sevens between 2011–2014.
History
Before this stadium was built, most major football matches were played at the EPRU Stadium, the city's rugby ground. The ERPU was not of great standards as it was often used for Rugby purpose.
When the country’s bid to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup, they decided to renovate ERPU but as the renovation process required changes to be made from the scratch, they went on to construct a new stadium.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium is often mistaken with the Nelson Mandela Stadium which is a different stadium situated in Uganda. The stadium in South Africa is nicknamed as ‘Protea’ due to its flower-like structure as the roof is made up of white petals like shades.
Major Matches
On 9 August 2009, (Women's Day in South Africa) a special doubleheader of games was played. This, along with female musical acts were performed to celebrate Women's Day.
From 2010 onwards, all of Eastern Province's Currie Cup and Vodacom Cup matches were set to be played at the stadium. Their first match after officially moving to the stadium was their 26–25 victory over the Griffons. The team has since hosted some Vodacom Cup matches at other venues.
The first concert at this stadium was on 29th November 2009 which was a 12-hour event called the Bay Summer Concert featuring Busta Rhymes and many other big names in the industry.
