Tiger Turf Arena

The opening of the Tiger Turf Arena, a marvelous new facility put together by Peter Hooper, in association with Legends Legacy Park Trust located on top of the rooftop of the Gateway Theatre of Shopping, on 30 October, was a huge success bringing together some of the great legends of rugby and soccer to highlight the launch of a very special new artificial sports field, which can be best described as multi-faceted sporting arena designed to serve all communities of our society.

The eLan SA Rugby Legends together with their soccer counterparts were on hand to help with development clinics at the start of proceedings in the afternoon and going by the big broad smiles on the faces of the youngsters it really was a special afternoon for them mixing with some of the true greats of the respective sports.

Mark Batchelor, Shaun Bartlett, Pieter Muller, Deon Kayser, Neil Tovey, Gary Teichmann, Adrian Garvey and John Allan were among the many legends that were on hand for the memorable afternoon of entertainment that proudly announced the arrival of Africa’s first ever rooftop sporting arena that will host corporate, social and professional Soccer and Tag Rugby leagues.

Besides being supported by members of the media it was great to see Butch James and Springbok skipper John Smit there giving their vote of approval. Certainly for the man who conceptualized the idea of these incredibly innovative multi-faceted turfs, John Allan, which also ultimately showcased and saw the beginning of 6 aside soccer Showbol with Brendan Hannan, it has been a dream come true and he deserves every success with his future plans with this worthwhile program.

East Cast Radio had David Guselli as MC strutting his stuff, on and off the field as he joined his team mates from the radio station to challenge the Legends of Soccer Mr. Gaselli knows his football it has to be said.

East Coast has secured rights to two leagues, the Wednesday Community Challenge and the Thursday Corporate league, and should listeners be interested in participating they can book on the radio station’s website

Thanks also has to go to William Allan of Tiger Turf who sadly couldn’t be at the opening and Van Dyck Carpets for all their input-certainly the Tiger Turf Arena Gateway looks destined to be of great value to the people of Durban and we wish all stakeholders a successful and happy future with the facility - they surely deserve it and long may the program continue.