Year completed 1952
Cost US$33,000,000 (upgrade)
Capacity 45,000
Home to Central Cheetahs, Free State Cheetahs (rugby), Bloemfontein Celtic (football)
Trivia Building work was dogged by a series of strikes, the longest of which lasted a fortnight. It is also known as Vodacom Park
Bloemfontein / Mangaung certainly doesn’t lack when it comes to sports facilities and there’s a fine assortment – the 48 000-seater Free State Stadium is companion to an international standard athletics stadium, the Goodyear Park cricket grounds which is used for international matches, an artificial turf hockey stadium and great tennis facilities.
The 1995 Rugby World Cup brought about a significantly improved stadium with seating bordering the field. Bloemfontein Stadium has also hosted international football events – some of the 1996 African Cup of Nations matches were played here. Improvements are completed for the 2010 FIFA World Cup with the seating capacity enlarged to accommodate 48,000 people and upgrades to other facilities.
Bloemfontein is a wonderful stopover between Cape Town and Durban and the closest city to the Kingdom of Lesotho. Its biggest secret is that it's the birthplace of J.R.R. Tolkien, author of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Bloemfontein offers some reasonable and very good accommodation, restaurants, art galleries and museums.
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