Costing 3 billion rand ($373 million) the 94,000-capacity stadium is distinctive, resembling a huge calabash a hollowed-out gourd used as a cooking pot or water carrier throughout Africa.
The calabash has inspired the colouring of the orange and brown membrane that surrounds the stadium while a ring of lights will illuminate the bottom of the building, simulating fire underneath the pot.
When it is completed later this year it will be the biggest soccer stadium in Africa. The stadium, which will host the World Cup final on July 11, 2010, embraces modern technology and will have more than 150 executive boxes commanding superb views of the pitch, comfort for fans and excellent working conditions for the media.
A 300-seat restaurant is being completed inside the stadium, with parking for 15,000 cars around the perimeter. Six days a week, between 3,000 and 3,500 construction workers are busy at the site, 10 kms from Johannesburg and on the outskirts of Soweto.
Among the neat touches in the design are windows and seating aligned to point towards the other South African World Cup venues and towards Berlin, the venue for the 2006 World Cup final.
The players" tunnel that leads from the dressing rooms to the pitch has been built to resemble the inside of a gold mine, in tribute to the industry that led to Johannesburg"s growth into the powerhouse city of the African economy.
There are plans to incorporate the result of every match in the World Cup into the tiling of the membrane as games are played.
The stadium, a little similar in shape to Munich"s Allianz Arena, was built on the site of the hugely popular FNB Stadium, an old icon in Soweto, part of which is now incorporated into the new construction.
Work on the new stadium started in January 2007 and is expected to be finished by October, with the surrounding area completed by the end of the year.
Soccer City will not only stage the final but the opening match on June 11 and four other first-round matches, one second-round game and a quarter-final.
