BUFFALO City Stadium is the new name of the venue previously known as Absa Stadium; the renaming decision was taken by the municipality, and is effective immediately.

The sponsorship agreement with Absa Limited ended in 2008 and the municipality felt it was imperative to have a “clean stadium” in the build up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup™, and that for marketing and communication, the stadium should be identified in terms of geographical location.

“It is imperative that as a potential team base camp and training venue for the 2010 World Cup, our stadium be named appropriately for marketing and lobbying purposes,” said the executive support services director, Vuyo Zambodla.

“The other risk is that using a corporate name that is not one of the accredited FIFA sponsors, may jeopardize our lobbying for the stadium as one of our proposed 2010 training venues.”

Zambodla said the name, Buffalo City Stadium, East London, would be used until after the World Cup, which runs from 11 June to 11 July 2010. A final decision could then be taken by the council on the long-term name of the stadium.

The municipality is preparing to remove all Absa advertising in and around the stadium and will meet with its operators, Border Rugby Football Union, to jointly audit all aspects of advertising alongside all other renovation plans for the venue.