I had a serious field of dreams moment last week wednesday. If you haven’t seen the movie let me give you the thirty second version. This dude has some serious voices in his head that keep telling him “if you build it they will come”. So he builds a baseball diamond in his mielie field. And they come.
I have been travelling around the country for the last six weeks speaking at the Comrades Marathon road shows about the charity initiative I’ve put together for 2011. Last Wednesday we were in Polokwane. The talk was practically in the shadow of the Moses Mabida stadium. I couldn’t help but leave with the feeling that it is just another multi billion rand white elephant.
On thursday morning two things struck me about Polokwane. The first thing was that I don’t think if you herded up the entire town and put them inside the stadium that you would fill it. And secondly that the entire town was infected with field of dreams syndrome. Every third house that I ran past on thursday morning had been turned into a guest house or bed and breakfast. If you build it they will come. They did come. For the few games that were played at the Moses Mabida stadium during the 2010 FIFA World Cup (am I allowed to say that or is it still owned by Sepp?). I was trying to figure out how sustainable all those establishments are really going to be moving forward. I know Polokwane is a town that has quite a bit of traffic going through it but I honestly cannot see all those businesses keeping their doors open. As far as the stadium is concerned I am also battling to figure out how that is going to be maintained moving ahead. Just 3 months after the world has gone home the paving around the stadium is being over run with weeds. After just 3 months. What will it look like after 3 years?
One positive that came out of that run was that I got to run down some of the prettiest streets I have ever run down. I’m not so sure of Pretoria being the Jacaranda City anymore. Polokwane may have very good reasons to claim that title. One of the streets I ran down was laced with Jacaranda’s in full bloom. For as far as the eye could see was purple flowers. The mass of flowers provided respite from the burning sun but had also spared enough to blanket the road surface with a generous sprinkling of blooms.
