Black Leopards to return to Thohoyandou Stadium

LIMPOPO – The two Vhembe-based teams playing in the Motsepe Foundation Championship league have come to an agreement with the Thulamela Municipality over the use of the Thohoyandou Stadium as their homeground and for hosting matches.

Black Leopards and the Venda Football Club share the stadium as their home ground but in recent years had to look elsewhere due to the fees charged by the municipality.

Leopards were using the Malamulele Stadium and the Peter Mokoba Stadium in Polokwane, where they paid R5 000 instead of the R27 795 charged by the municipality for the use of the Thohoyandou Stadium.

Official rates for the stadium state that a team or PSL leagues must pay a refundable security fee on top of the charged rate, which accumulates to just more than R43 400.

The rent for Makwarela Stadium is R24 321 and for Makonde and Makhuvha Stadiums, R10 423.

The fee for playing at the stadium at night (and collecting gate fees) is set at R28 420.

Using the stadium would cost an organisation R181 886 for a full day and night event, such as a music festival. Additionally, a security deposit of R45 471 would be required.

The chairperson of Black Leopards, Tshifhiwa Thidiela, however said that after several meetings with the Thulamela Municipality, it was agreed that the stadium would be used at a lower rate and serve as their homegrounds while Malamulele and Peter Mokaba would serve as alternative home grounds.

The spokesperson for Thulamela Local Municipality, Nndwamato Tshiila stated that an agreement had been reached after a series of meetings between the two teams and that they halved the tariff.