About FNB Stadium
The FNB Stadium (First National Bank Stadium), also known as Soccer City, is a stadium located in Nasrec, bordering the Soweto area of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is the home of Kaizer Chiefs F.C. and the South African national football team. It famously hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup Final between the Netherlands and Spain.
With a capacity of 94,736, it is the largest stadium in Africa. The exterior design is inspired by the shape of an African pot, the calabash. The cladding is a mosaic of fire and earthen colors with a ring of lights running around the bottom of the structure, simulating fire underneath the pot.
It was the site of Nelson Mandela's first speech in Johannesburg after his release from prison in 1990 and also the venue for his memorial service in 2013. The stadium is a symbol of modern South Africa and continues to host major sporting and cultural events, including concerts by global superstars.
The venue is owned by Stadium Management South Africa (SMSA) under a 40-year build-operate-transfer concession granted by the City of Johannesburg in 2006 and set to revert to municipal ownership in 2046. The 26-hectare parcel at Soccer City Avenue in the Nasrec suburb was previously the site of the original 1989 concrete bowl designed by Rodney Grosskopff, and 60 per cent of that earlier structure was retained within the 2010 calabash-shell rebuild undertaken by joint-venture Boogertman Urban Edge + Partners with Populous of London at a reconstruction cost of 3.3 billion South African rand. The complex sits atop a former gold mine tailings dump reclaimed and remediated between 2003 and 2005 by contractor Aveng Grinaker-LTA under a 189-million-rand environmental restoration agreement with the Gauteng provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.