Newlands Stadium is located in Cape Town, South Africa. The decision to buy the ground the stadium stands on was made by the Western Province Rugby and Football Union in 1888. The stadium currently has a capacity of 50,900 people and is an all seater venue.

The first official match at Newlands took place on 31 May 1890 when Stellenbosch defeated Villagers there in front of a crowd of about 2400 people. The following year the stadium hosted its first rugby test when the British Lions toured South Africa.

It wasn't until 1919 that the first permanent concrete stands were erected on the grounds. Later, in 1927, the New Grand Stand was erected and the field layout was changed to run from North-South. Yet more changes were came in 1931 when the South Stand was also enlarged.

In the 1950's parts of a new Grand Stand as well as South Stand were completed, luxuries such as lifts and a Presidential room was added, a fourth bay was added to the Grand Stand and an extention was added to the lower gallery.

The 1970's saw the stadium change once again as the headquarters of SA Rugby moved to Newlands, and several stands were built or renovated, while the 1980's saw private suits and function rooms erected on top of the North Stands as well as demolition of the old South Stand and inauguration of the new Danie Craven stand (also with private suits and function rooms). The 80's also saw 10,253 seats added to the stadium.

Between 1990 and 1995 the stadium was under constant renovation adding technology, increasing capacity, and upgrading facilities as part of a 3 phase redevelopment plan in anticipation of the 1995 Rugby World Cup, where the opening match of the tournament was played.

After the World Cup development continued with several redevelopment and expansion projects to make the stadium more modern and increase capacity.

The stadiums name was changed several times by various sponsors, first from Newlands to Norwich Park Newlands in 1996, then to Fedsure Park Newlands in 2000 due to a merger between Fedsure and Norwich and finally back to simply Newlands by Investec when they became the main sponsor in 2002. In late 2005, Vodacom became the stadium's main sponsor, but followed Investec's precedent and kept the stadium name as Newlands.

Various sports clubs currently use the stadium as their homebase, including:

* Stormers (rugby club)|Super 14 rugby union team the Stormers.

* Ajax Cape Town|Premier Soccer League team Ajax Cape Town.

* Western Province Rugby Union

In anticipation of the 2010 Fifa Football World Cup the stadium is being modified once again. Newlands will be provided with a modern electronic scoreboard, upgraded floodlights, an improved sound system and a new surveillance security system.

The two standing areas, located both in front of the main stand on the western side of the ground, and in the lower level at the south end of the stadium, will both be converted into seating areas, providing spectators with correctly specified bucket seats.

(Source: Wikipedia)

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