Millions of rands are expected to flow into Nelson Mandela Bay when South Africa's T20 Global Challenge kicks off in November.
Nelson Mandela Bay municipal manager, Johann Mettler, has already projected that more than R1bn could flow into the city over the ten-year period of the tournament, which will also garner a global audience.
Indian billionaire and PE franchise owner, Ajay Sethi was in Nelson Mandela Bay on Wednesday to unveil his plans going forward.
He said he wanted to form successful partnerships, not only with the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, but with the people as well.
"I would also like to add that this franchise (does) not only belong to my group and my family, it belongs to the people of Port Elizabeth. It's the Peoples' Franchise," Sethi said at a media briefing.
He said he would be making a call for the public to help decide on the name for the franchise team that will have Proteas spinner, Imraan Tahir as its South African marquee player. The final team will only be picked when the draft is held on 19 August and if Sethi has his way will include at least one West Indian international marquee player.
Sethi also said that he wanted the new franchise to help grow the game of cricket beyond the hallowed grounds of St George's Park and that it cascades to grassroots level.
"We are very keen to bring cricket to the villages, rural areas and schools. I'm also very keen to bring it to the university and we want to get involved with the students and youth in smaller towns and grow cricket. We have a whole year programme," Sethi said. He said they "won't only come and play and then go."
Cricket South Africa CEO, Haroon Lorgat, who hails from Port Elizabeth, thanked Sethi for showing confidence in the League and the country.
"I must personally thank him for showing confidence, having bought into the concept of the T20 Global League, for realising the investment opportunity and the potential of owning in South Afica. We've always believed that this country has the perfect ingredients to launch a T20 league in the format that many of us know happens around the globe today," Lorgat said.
"Plenty have said that it's late, but I always says better late than never. But, we've always wanted to do much else before we took the step of launching such a league. So, many of you might be aware that we've right-sized, re-engineered, we've sorted out governance, we're very financially stable today. It's not only for purposes of the League that is coming along, but we wanted to upgrade and refurbish our stadiums."
Lorgat said in the region of R350m had been earmarked for "upgrading our stadiums across the country and St George's Park will be the beneficiary of a substantial amount."
"You might be aware that this League was initiated back in early 2016. We spent all of 2016 designing the concepts around it. We eventually settled on positioning it as a global league, hence the kind of international class owners that we've got. As it turned out we've got two from the existing Indian Premier League, we've got two from the Pakistan super league that are owners and we've got two other global personalities," he Lorgat.
He said it was not difficult for Sethi, who has roots in Kenya and has lived there for many years, to enter into South Africa with a substantial investment. "
"We floated all 11 of our cities that have international class stadiums as available to investors or personalities who would want to own a team. But, there would only be 8 available. It would be pretty obvious that Port Elizabeth would get the nod. PE and St George's Park have a huge history. So, it was a favourite option for several of our people looking at wanting to acquire a team".
"So, Port Elizabeth was always going to be one of the favourites to be picked up," said Lorgat.
"We really believe that the League will create a platform for the city and the country and for cricket to position itself. It's the format that has become the most popular and recognised as the best commercial opportunity to sustain the game, to grow the game and to attract new fans to the game." he said.
"The excitement that we've seen in this particular phase of designing and launching the League has been tremendous. We've had in excess of 150 expressions of interest for eight teams. In the end we had to whittle it down through a robust process to a short-list and eventually the eight owners were revealed in England on 19 June."
"I envisage this League to be valued in excess of R5bn. I think it's going to be huge for the country and huge for cricket and I've not even started to calculate what the economic impact would be and I think it's an opportunity and I'm very pleased that the city has seen that opportunity and have started to take a step to move in the right direction to support it. This is a platform to promote tourism, to promote social cohesion, to promote the communities to come and off-course promote the game of cricket," said Lorgat.
Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has also committed more than R30m for upgrading St George's Park.
Mayoral Committee member for Economic Development, Tourism and Agriculture, Andrew Whitfield, said that the city's making the investment to "ensure that we have a globally acceptable facility that can attract these kind of events".
"The impact of this event for the city is significant. From a tourism point of view there is a direct jobs multiplier with the kind of investment that's coming into the city, the kind of permanent presence that this League is going to have in our city and also beyond that (what Mr Sethi alluded to) will be benefits at grassroots level."
"Beyond that is showcasing the city to the world. This League competition will be broadcast through tens if not hundreds of millions of homes across the world and the potential for us to attract tourists to the city by showcasing what we have, we can really start to unlock the full tourism potential of the city. Sports tourism in South Africa is a massive opportunity and Nelson Mandela Bay is perfectly positioned for that," Whitfield said.
"We have identified sports tourism in our planning processes and allocations of budgets to ensure that we bring more sports events to this city. We believe sports tourism is going to be a massive growth area for the city and this show of confidence, this investment in the city is a sign of good things to come," he said.
