The City of Cape Town is still weighing up the three bids which were received for the tender to run the Green Point Stadium and surrounding urban park following the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and has decided to postpone the awarding of the tender for at least another month.

This will give the tender evaluation committee more time to study the bids and meet the three bidders separately, in order to fully evaluate their bids.

Awarding the tender to the best possible bidder is very important, as the tender is for a 30-year lease, which has an estimated present-day value of R260-million.

For this reason, the bidders need to convince the committee that they will be able to generate an income for that period, in order to sustain the stadium and the Green Point Urban Park, and not become a burden on ratepayers. The winning bidder would also need to engage with the community in order to run the stadium and park.

The three bidders have not been named, and the tender evaluation committee has not released any details of how the bidders plan to run the stadium and park post-2010.

The three bidders submitted include seven entities. One bid came from a single company, the other from two and the third from four companies. It is now up to the tender evaluation committee to weigh them up. An open sitting will be held to award the tender.

Awarding the stadium operator tender well ahead of 2010 means that the winning bidder will be able to have a say in some of the detail design work of the stadium. It is envisaged that the top tier of seating will be removed after the FIFA World Cup, meaning there will be room for executive suites and commercial spaces, which will help the operator generate an income.

Present zoning rights mean the stadium and park can be used as places