1 November 2016
Stadium Management SA (Pty) Ltd. is proud to announce another achievement with the company honoured with an International Quality Crown (Gold Category) award for excellence in the 2016 Business Initiative Directive (BID) Corporate Awards, with the ceremony taking place in London, England on 19 and 20 November 2016.
Stadium Management SA (SMSA) manages FNB, Orlando, Dobsonville and Rand Stadiums in the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality.
SMSA is the third South African company to have been handed this prestigious accolade, and follows the footsteps of two other Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed companies.
“It is such a great South African story to tell and a humbling experience when you get recognised for excellence by an international brand,” said SMSA Chief Executive Officer, Jacques Grobbelaar.
“SMSA has been in existence since 2009. We continue to grow as a company, but it is rewards of this nature that give us the ultimate satisfaction and motivation to work even more harder in our objective of stimulating enterprising opportunities at the venues we manage. We have had great opportunities of winning accolades but none higher than this honour from the BID Corporate Awards.
“Outside of the incredible hard work from our staff, I can only thank our clients, our partners, the City of Johannesburg and, far more importantly, the patrons who walk through the turnstiles to witness the quality events that we try to put on show for them.”
There were two more recent successes with the much talked about Soweto Derby Absa Premiership fixture (Orlando Pirates v Kaizer Chiefs) at FNB Stadium as well as the Cassper Nyovest Fill Up Orlando Stadium music concert – both staged on Saturday, 29 October – adding another feather to the company’s cap one of the leading stadium management companies in the world.
The Soweto Derby is the biggest sporting showpiece in the southern hemisphere that has the distinction of being hosted three times a year at the picturesque Calabash-styled venue.
These two sold out events add to successes that include the 2010 Fifa World Cup and the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, the Springboks and Bafana Bafana international rugby and football fixtures as well as a host of internationally acclaimed artists like U2, Bon Jovi, Rihanna and Metallica.
Through the SMSA Trust, the company has also built a social responsibility role and embracing the issues that affect the local areas.
“As SMSA, we always look at promoting 24 top class events that can attract about 764 000 people per year, and we do by managing all the facilities without a single cent coming from the taxpayers money, which also contributes immensely to the growth, profile and tourism in the City of Johannesburg and the Gauteng province as a whole.”
“We also are aware of our added duties as responsible South Africans in curbing the plight of our communities by creating sustainable jobs in the local community, partnering in outreach programmes and embracing the issues that affect our local areas through the SMSA Trust,” concluded Grobbelaar.
Some of the Trust initiatives include the Community Cleaning Project that utilises community members as cleaners at events, the Informal Traders where the aim is for local communities to grow their small businesses into profitable enterprises through the City of Johannesburg Social Development department; as well as the Orlando Pirates Learning Centre at Orlando Stadium in conjunction with the legendary Soweto club, through educational initiatives which has been created specifically for the learners in Orlando and its surroundings.