Author: World of Stadiums

Plans for a new stadium in Zagreb have been confirmed by the president of the Croatian football association. The president hopes to have a brand new stadium in the next two years, but those plans seem to be overly optimistic. Older plans for a new 50,000-capacity stadium in Zagreb never became a reality. Stadion Maksimir is currently known as the largest sports venue by capacity in Zagreb, but the venue is widely regared as outdated. The 35,000-capacity Stadion Maksimir is the home of Dinamo Zagreb, the most successful Croatian football club. The national football team of Croatia, who lost the 2018 FIFA World Cup final against France, also played numerous matches at the venue.

A new stadium will be built in Hong Kong. The venue will be used for several events, like football and rugby sevens. It will have a capacity of 50,000. When the stadium is ready, it will be among the largest sports venues by capacity in China. In 2017, the Hong Kong legislators in the finance committee granted the cash for the venue. 36 legislators green-lit the stadium and 21 legislators were voting against it. The construction works of the venue, which will have a retractable roof, are scheduled for completion in 2023.

Several stadiums are currently being built in Cameroon. The new stadium in Douala and the new stadium in Yaoundé will be the two largest sports venues by capacity in Cameroon. Both venues will be used for several events, like athletics and football. The venue in Douala will have a capacity of 50,000 and the venue in Yaoundé will have a capacity of 60,000. Both venues will be used by the national football team of Cameroon, the first African team which reached the quarter-finals of the prestigious FIFA World Cup. The Africa Cup of Nations was initially scheduled to be hosted by Cameroon in 2019. The tournament will be hosted by Egypt because of conflicts and infrastructural delays in Cameroon.

Egypt hosted the Africa Cup of Nations five times. The 2019 edition of the African championship for national football teams will be the first edition of the championship with 24 participants. 16 national football teams participated in the previous edition of the tournament, which took place in 2017. The 2017 edition of the African football tournament was won by Cameroon. They won their fifth African championship title after beating Egypt in the final. 38,000 people attended the game, which took place in Gabon.

The Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad hosted its first-ever Cricket World Cup match in 1987. The game was won by the national cricket team of India after beating Zimbabwe. The capacity of the venue was 49,000 before the renovation works started. It will be the largest stadium by capacity in India. The Sardar Patel Stadium will have a capacity of 110,000. It will become the largest cricket stadium in the world. The 100,000-capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground, which is among the largest sports venues by capacity in the world, is currently known as the largest cricket venue by capacity. The Australian sports venue opened in 1853.

The delivery of the new national stadium in Tokyo is going as planned initially. It will be located in Shinjuku, a major administrative and commercial centre of Tokyo. The demolition of the old stadium was completed in 2015 to make way for the new venue. At present, the roof structure is almost complete and thousands of seats have already been installed. Tens of thousands of seats will be installed soon. The venue will become the most expensive stadium in the history of Japan. The new national stadium will be used by the national football team of Japan.

On 11 November 2018, the Argentine side Boca Juniors played against their arch-rivals River Plate in the first leg of the final of the South American championship for football clubs. The match, which was played in Buenos Aires in front of a fanatical capacity crowd, ended in a 2-2 draw. It was the first South American championship final between two football clubs from Argentina. The second leg of the final will take place in Europe. The Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, the home of the world famous Spanish football side Real Madrid, will host the first-ever final of the Copa Libertadores outside South America. The second leg was originally to be hosted by River Plate in Buenos Aires on 24 November 2018. However, due to safety concerns resulting from an attack on a team bus of the Boca Juniors, the second leg was moved outside of Argentina.

The construction of a new stadium in Townsville started in 2017. The North Queensland Cowboys will move to the venue when it will be ready. They are members of the National Rugby League. The North Queensland Cowboys are among the major rugby league clubs from Australia. The stadium, which was part of the 2022 FIFA World Cup bid of Australia, will have a capacity of 25,000. It is scheduled to open in 2020. The stadium will be among the largest sports venues by capacity in Queensland when it opens.

In 2016, FC Cincinnati drew an average home attendance of 17,000 in their first domestic league season. They played all 15 home games at the 33,000-capacity Nippert Stadium. FC Cincinnati became the first third level football club from the United States with a home attendance above 30,000. In 2018, it was announced that FC Cincinnati will become a Major League Soccer club. Within a few months, the construction of the new home of FC Cincinnati will begin. The stadium will have a capacity of 25,000 and it is planned to open in 2021. The estimated costs of the stadium are $212 million, with the majority of funding coming from FC Cincinnati and its ownership group.

The Italian football side Venezia FC have serious plans for a new stadium. Their current home is located in one of the least accessible parts of the city of Venice. If built, the new stadium would be located close to an airport, a highway and a railway station. The estimated costs of the venue would be €185 million and it would have a capacity of 18,000 when it opens. The detailed stadium design should be ready in 2019 and groundbreaking could be possible in 2021. Two years later, the stadium could be ready.

In 1970, Feyenoord became the first European football champions from the Netherlands, followed by Ajax from Amsterdam and PSV from Eindhoven. They have been tenants of Stadion Feijenoord, which is nicknamed De Kuip, since 1937. Stadion Feijenoord is the largest sports venue by capacity in Rotterdam. Feyenoord have plans to move to a new stadium, which has a proposed capacity of 63,000, within a few years. The project may be a risk more than a chance. According to a study by Tsjalle van der Burg, a sports economist, the relocation idea might not be as good as it may seem according to club estimates. High costs could threaten the existence of Feyenoord.