Wednesday’s Betway Premiership top of the table clash between Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns, has been moved from Pirates fortress, Orlando Amstel Arena to the nearby FNB Stadium.
Stadium Management South Africa CEO, Bertie Grobbelaar, said they had to change the venue, as they expect about 60 000 fans to attend the clash, who can be accommodated at the FNB Stadium.
Grobbelaar also revealed that about 31 000 tickets have already been sold, and they anticipate a ticket rush just days before the clash.
Grobbelaar has in the meanwhile, sent a stern warning to would-be fraudsters, planning to use fake tickets to access the stadium.
He highlighted that they want to create an atmosphere and experience, where legitimate ticket holders have safe access to the stadium.
“We have been confronted with overcrowding at venues and people gaining access to the venues that’s not legitimate ticket holders.
The issue created with that is in a capacity, then overcrowding, and the next thing is once you reach capacity, it leads to legitimate ticket holders being left outside the venue.
The major change with access control going forward and we started about a month ago, is the activation of the turnstiles, which is a physical barrier that is not operated manually.
It operates digitally and automatically to grant the owner of a legitimate ticket holder access to the turnstile,” said Grobbelaar, who was briefing the media at the Orlando Amstel Arena.
Furthermore, the CEO announced that they have in the past, managed to infiltrate a syndicate selling fake tickets where one individual admitted having sold about 3 000 fake tickets.
Grobbelaar assured fans that tickets that were bought initially for the Orlando Amstel Arena venue, will still be valid at the FNB Stadium clash.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department, Superintendent Xolani Fihla, revealed that 120 officers will be on duty, to help with traffic control and road closures.
“We had to look into the magnitude of the game, it is a big game and we’re expecting traffic disruptions around the FNB Stadium precinct and surroundings.
There were a lot of deliberations that we had to get into, regarding the traffic management, looking at the previous games, dynamics of having a night match, which is mid-week, people coming to the stadium, residents within the community coming from work, peak hour period,” explained Fihla.
The game, which is being billed as a potential league decider, is scheduled for a 19:30 kick-off on Wednesday.
