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Soccer City R1bn over budget

Johannesburg - Johannesburg authorities say the venue for the 2010 Soccer World Cup final went R1bn over budget.

Johannesburg city councilman Parks Tau said on Wednesday that Soccer City ended up costing R3.2bn due to the rising price of building materials.

The stadium, built to resemble a calabash, which will host the opening and closing matches of the June 11-July 11 World Cup, was handed over to the city on Wednesday by the Aveng construction group.

With 99 days before kick-off, work on transport infrastructure around the stadium is scheduled for completion in mid-March.

The stadium took 10 million working-hours to construct and has 87 000 seats with its design ensuring that no spectator is over 105m away from the pitch.

It has 193 suites, roughly 2 700 seats dedicated to the media, 860 parking bays and 77 concession kiosks.

The stadium's construction required 90 000m of concrete, roughly 12 000 tons of reinforcement steel, nine million bricks and 13 000 tons of structural steel.

Soccer City (AFP Photo)

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