Details emerge on stadium lifespan
There is evidence suggesting that Kamuzu Stadium, whose suspect state has led to its closure pending government’s assessment, could be on the wrong side of its lifespan.
The Blantyre stadium might be 45 years old whereas the original structure, then called Rangeley Stadium could be 57.
The Nation gathered the information to get a picture of the facility’s condition, which some fear is bad.
Fifa puts an average stadium’s lifespan at 30 years. Elsewhere old stadia are either demolished or rendered museums. In the region, most old stadia underwent massive face-lifts. For example, Tanzania National Stadium is now a training base for the police and the army.
“The pace of technological development and the increasing insistence of spectators that they are provided with more comfortable and luxurious facilities could lead to the average lifespan of a modern stadium falling to 30 years or even less,” reads www.fifa.com. But Fifa has no records on when Kamuzu Stadium was built.
On Saturday, Kamuzu Stadium manager Charles Mhango said while there are no records, the information he found in office was that Rangeley was built in 1948. The Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Sports Alex Mseka said the current stadium was unveiled in 1967. He added that government would act on the facility depending on structural engineers’ recommendation.
“It started off with a wooden and steel structure, then called Rangeley Stadium, but initially, the current structure had three stands,” Mseka said on Wednesday. He said it was first renamed National Stadium, then Kamuzu Stadium.
Internet research established that the stadium was named after Mr William H.J Rangeley, born in 1910 in Fort Jameson (Chipata) in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia). He was an administrative officer in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
“From 1952 to 1958, when he died in a drowning accident in Cape Town, Rangeley was a provincial commissioner of Southern Nyasaland. The first stadium in Malawi, located in Blantyre, was named after him,” reads Nyasaland Journal.
There is consensus that the current stadium was opened in 1967. The same cannot be said about the birth of Rangeley Stadium. Pioneer football administrator Ishmael Khamisa said the stadium was erected in 1955.
“I was 12 and schooling then. I just know that the stadium was named after regional commissioner Rangeley,” Khamisa said on Monday about the stadium which Malawi founding president, the late Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, renamed after his name at the dawn of independence.
United Kingdom website www.mailtalk.ac.uk quoted in 2002 pioneer Nyasaland national team player Geoffrey Kalitsiro as also giving 1955 as the stadium’s year of birth. He was part of a Nyasaland Select that travelled in several countries fund-raising for the construction of the stadium.
But National Council of Construction Industry technical director Gerald Khonje on Thursday argued that when well-constructed, a concrete stadium is supposed to get stronger with age.
“Lifespan of a structure can only be established after an assessment that there is deterioration of structural elements. Type of material used is also a factor,” said Khonje. He said they can only recommend a firm to assess a facility if approached.
