GlobeStadiums

Olympic stadium in Wroclaw, southern Poland

Chase Field, also known as The BOB (after its original name, Bank One Ballpark), is a stadium located in Phoenix, Arizona. It is across the street from the US Airways Center, used by the NBA’s Phoenix Suns. Chase Field’s main concern is with baseball, being home of Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks. Starting in 2006, Chase Field will also be home to the annual Challenge at Chase, a baseball game between in-state and Pac-10 rivals Arizona State University and the University of Arizona.

The park began to be constructed in 1996, and was finished just before the Diamondbacks’ first season began, in 1998. It was only the second MLB stadium to have a retractable roof (after Toronto’s SkyDome; others are now in Houston, Milwaukee, and Seattle). It was also the first ballpark to feature natural grass in a retractable roof stadium. Chase Field also has a swimming pool, located in right center field, which is rented to patrons. The ballpark also features a dirt strip between home plate and the pitcher’s mound, one of only two current ballparks to do so (Comerica Park in Detroit is the other).

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Stadium of Light in Sunderland

Inauguration: 31 July 1997

Capacity: 48,300 seats

The Allianz Arena is a football stadium located in the north-Munich district of Fröttmaning. It opened end of April 2005 and is the new home to the German football clubs TSV 1860 München and FC Bayern München. The stadium will also host the opening game of the 2006 World Cup. It was designed by the Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron to replace the Olympiastadion which had been used by the two clubs since 1972.

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Memorial Stadium is a stadium in Bloomington, Indiana. It is primarily used for American football, and is the home field of the Indiana University “Hoosiers”. Memorial Stadium opened in 1960 as part of a new athletics area at the university. and holds 52,354 people. The stadium is similar in structure to venues at Wake Forest (Groves Stadium) and Virginia Tech (Lane Stadium). It replaced the “old” Memorial Stadium, built in 1925, a 20,000 seat stadium located on 10th St where the arboretum now stands.

There have been many renovations since the original construction, including the replacement of wooden seats with aluminum, installation of sound and lighting systems, and laying of Astroturf in 1986, which was subsequently replaced with natural grass in 1998. Prior to the 2003 season, that natural grass was removed. Indiana now plays football on a synthetic surface.

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The Estadio Nacional de Chile, national stadium of Chile, is located in the Ñuñoa municipality of Santiago, Chile. It is the largest stadium in Chile with an official capacity of 76500.

Construction began in February of 1937 and it was inaugurated on December 3, 1938. The architecture was taken from the Olympic Stadium, Berlin, Germany. The stadium is notorious as a concentration camp under the military regime ruling from 1973.

It is used mostly for football matches and was one of the four venues of the 1962 World Cup, hosting the opening game, a quarterfinal, a semifinal, the third-place match, and the final. As such, it was the scene of the Chile national team’s greatest-ever accomplishment, the 1-0 victory over Yugoslavia for third place on 16 June 1962. Today, the Estadio Nacional serves as the home field for both the national team and first-division club Universidad de Chile. It also holds some big non-sporting events such as political celebrations or charity spectacles.

During the Chilean coup of 1973 it was used as a concentration camp holding 40,000 prisoners, between September and November of that year. The field and gallery were used to hold male prisoners, while female prisoners were held in the swimming pool changing rooms and associated buildings. Locker rooms and corridors were used to torture and murder prisoners, while interrorgations were carried out in the velodrome.

A documentary film, Estadio Nacional has been made about the use of the stadium as a concentration camp.

[Source: Wikipedia]

Cleveland Browns Stadium is a football stadium located in Cleveland, Ohio (41°30′21.51″N, 81°41′58.5″W). It is the home of the Cleveland Browns NFL franchise. The stadium sits on 31 acres (130,000 m²) of land on the shores of Lake Erie and has a capacity of at least 73,200. The normal use of Cleveland Browns Stadium is only for football; however, the stadium was built with a playing surface large enough to allow it to host international soccer matches.

A major criticism of the facility is that over a quarter of a billion dollars was spent on a venue that is only guaranteed to be used for ten events each year (eight regular season and two preseason football games). Many civic leaders in Cleveland contend that a domed stadium, constructed closer to the central business district, could have doubled as a much needed replacement for the aging, cramped Public Auditorium and Convention Center. Additionally, the land on which Cleveland Browns Stadium now sits could have been used to further develop the underutilized Lake Erie shoreline for residential and business purposes.

Cleveland Browns Stadium sits on the former site of Cleveland Municipal Stadium, which housed the Browns before owner Art Modell moved the team to Baltimore to become the Ravens. As part of the deal that brought a “new” Browns team to Cleveland, the city of Cleveland tore down Cleveland Stadium after the 1996 NFL season to make room for the new facility. Debris from the former stadium was submerged in Lake Erie and now serves as an artificial reef. Ground was broken on May 15, 1997, the stadium opened in July 1999, and the resurrected Browns debuted there in the 1999 NFL season. The stadium also hosts the annual Ohio Classic college football game.

The city chose not to sell the naming rights to the stadium itself; this is very non-typical for major American stadiums built in recent years. However, the naming rights to all four of the facility’s gates were sold. The stadium is also home to the notorious “Dawg Pound”, a section of bleacher seats whose occupants are commonly regarded as some of the most passionate in football.

The West 3rd St. station of Cleveland’s Waterfront light rail line serves the stadium.

[Source: Wikipedia]

Bobby Bowden Field at Doak Campbell Stadium is the football stadium on the campus of the Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. It is the home venue for the university’s Seminoles football team. The stadium was named for Doak S. Campbell, a past president of the university and the field was named for head football coach Bobby Bowden. The stadium is part of the University Center complex, a mixed-use facility encompassing university office space, university classrooms, a food court, souvenir store, The University Center Club, as well as skyboxes and press boxes for use during football games. Following the latest expansion in 2003, the stadium has a seating capacity of 82,300. On November 20, 2004, in accordance with an act of state legislation, the stadium and field were renamed Bobby Bowden Field at Doak Campbell Stadium.

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Mauritania’s Stade National in Nouakchott, Mauretania

Seats: 40,000

Arena Information: Introduction and History

In 1988, William Wirtz, owner of the Chicago Blackhawks, and Jerry Reinsdorf, majority owner and Team Chairman of the Chicago Bulls, formed a new partnership to create an arena that would take sports and entertainment into the 21st century.

The United Center, home to the Chicago Blackhawks and Chicago Bulls, is the largest arena in the United States. Construction was begun in April of 1992, with the ribbon cutting ceremony being held on August 18, 1994.

Since opening, the United Center has hosted over 200 events each year. Some of the events the United Center has been proud to host include the 1996 Democratic National Convention, The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Paul McCartney, U2, The Who, The 3 Tenors, Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Disney on Ice, the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament, the Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament, the Great Eight Classic, DePaul College Basketball, and Champions on Ice.

The United Center has hosted over twenty million guests since its opening in 1994.

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