20/07/2026
It Always Seems Impossible, Until It's Done
This is a statement that rings so powerfully true in every aspect of life. It speaks to the very heart of all of us, and to the indomitable character of everyone who has, or who will overcome adversity in their lives.
Just like every individual, every business must encounter challenges and face adversity. Every business and partnership can overcome adversity through determination, sheer will, and the belief that the rule of law set up for us by the forefathers of our proud nation, South Africa, will ultimately work for the good of the people who call this country home, for communities to thrive and for us all to EVOLV towards a brighter future.
On the N3 Freeway, Durban in KwaZulu Natal, at the gates of one of South Africa's most storied sporting institutions, a new landmark has just lit up.
It is not simply another billboard. The story of how it got there is bigger than advertising. It's the story of a nearly three-year legal fight to save a stadium and a critical community facility that, for almost 70 years, has quietly changed thousands of lives. It is a testament to overcoming adversity.
EVOLV Outdoors' newest double-sided digital billboard now stands, not only as a world class advertising opportunity, but as a beacon of light and hope for a community.
It is a story of how EVOLV Outdoor fought for Westridge Tennis Stadium - and Won. A story of how we EVOLVed from the brink of closure of a critical community facility, to a brighter digital future.
Westridge Stadium - A Stadium Built on a Promise.
In 1956, the Durban Lawn Tennis Association signed a 99-year lease with the City of Durban to build a tennis stadium in Mayville. That promise became Westridge Park Tennis Stadium, which is today the home to 25 tournament-level hard courts, seven of them floodlit, and a centre court that seats 7,500 spectators. It is the largest tennis facility in the country, and it is the headquarters of the KwaZulu-Natal Tennis Association.
Over almost seven decades, Westridge Tennis Stadium has hosted some of South Africa's largest local and international tennis tournaments. From Davis Cup ties and ITF tournaments to the BRICS Games and the Growthpoint Top Gun National Tennis Tournament. The Stadium has hosted WWE events, political rallies, Concerts, and during the COVID-19 pandemic it was even one of Durban's main testing sites. Today, the eThekwini Tennis Association (ETA), which administers the stadium, coordinates 22 affiliated clubs and multiple schools across the city.
But its most quietly powerful work happens off the scoreboard entirely.
Since 2008, ETA has run the "Play and Stay" initiative which offers coaching sessions at Westridge for learners from the country's least-resourced schools, where most families cannot afford school fees, let alone sports coaching.
One of the clearest examples of what the "Play and Stay" initiative means in practice is Emmanuel Ngema, a Westridge-based coach from KwaMashu. In 2015, Ngema started coaching a group of about 20 children from nearby informal settlements. By 2022, that number had grown to roughly 400 young players, with some as young as four years old. Two of the students have gone on to receive tennis scholarships. Among ETA's broader development pipeline, junior player Simphiwe Ngwenya is currently ranked 4th nationally in his age category.
This is what was at stake when Westridge's advertising revenue, the stadium's primary source of income for staff salaries, court maintenance, and tournament hosting, was thrown into jeopardy.
The trouble began in May 2023
The trouble began in May 2023, when EVOLV Outdoor lodged an application with the eThekwini Municipality on ETA's behalf to replace the ageing static advertising board infrastructure. The static advertising board, which was in place for roughly two decades and a critical source of income for the ETA was to be replaced with a modern large format digital screen which had the ability to stabilise income generation to the ETA and ensure that the stadium and club stay alive!
The city rejected the application November 2023, arguing the site fell within a "maximum control area" where such signage wasn't permitted, and raising concerns about traffic safety and visual impact. EVOLV filed an appeal in December 2023 having the certainty that its application matches all the requirements for a legal and compliant billboard. Meanwhile, without the advertising income the board, ETA came dangerously close to shutting its doors completely. At one point warning it would have to close the facility by the end of February 2024 without emergency funding from EVOLV Outdoor
What followed was not a quick fix. It was a sustained legal process, appeal after appeal, argument after argument. EVOLV Outdoor and ETA against a municipal bureaucracy that, however well-intentioned, was on the verge of costing KwaZulu-Natal its largest tennis facility.
The turning point came in February 2026, when the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg refused eThekwini Municipality's attempt to suspend an earlier court order, a ruling which was a significant legal victory for Westridge Tennis Stadium and EVOLV Outdoor. It was a decisive step back from the brink of closure and an evolutionary step forward for the tennis community and the thousands of people, pupils and learners who call this stadium "home".
Nearly three years after the fight began, the outcome was clear: the stadium would stand, the association would survive, and the new digital board could finally go up.
It seemed impossible. But now it is done.
It would be easy to reduce this to a simple signage dispute. It wasn't.
It was a showcase of whether doing things properly, filing the right applications, respecting due legal process, and going through the courts rather than around them could still win against the simple math of bureaucratic inertia versus an institution's survival.
It was a fight to keep a community institution alive for the benefit of thousands of learners, pupils and people in KwaZulu Natal.
The fortunate truth is that EVOLV Outdoor has built a reputation of doing things properly. EVOLV Outdoor chose the long walk. Three years of appeals, filings, and patience, when a shortcut would have been so much easier and so much faster, if it existed at all. It didn't take one, because EVOLV Outdoor doesn't build that way.
That's the real story behind the new digital board on the N3: is not just a bigger, brighter, double-sided screen, but testament of the indomitable spirit to save a community institution worth saving.
Victories like this don't happen in isolation. Several people stood behind Westridge Tennis Stadium throughout this process. This win belongs to all of them as much as it does to EVOLV.
To Kim Hayes, secretary of the eThekwini Tennis Association and the ETA team at large, who kept the stadium's doors open and its community programmes running through the most uncertain months of this fight. Thank you for believing in the impossible.
So, what is next for Westridge?
With stable advertising income now secured, Westridge Stadium and the eThekwini Tennis Association can keep its doors open for the 22 affiliated clubs and schools that rely on Westridge, for the free coaching programmes reaching hundreds of children from underserved communities, and for the next generation of KwaZulu-Natal players coming through its courts.
The board is live. The stadium stands. And the thousands of young players who train there, many of whom will never know a boardroom or a courtroom, get to keep playing.
We celebrate the newest digital billboard on the N3, Westridge Tennis Stadium, Durban.
