GlobeStadiums

Royal Birkdale Golf Club in the town of Southport in Merseyside, England (but formerly in Lancashire), is one of the clubs in the Open Championship rotation. The club has hosted The Open eight times since 1954, with the next championship to be held in 2008. Previous winners of the Open at Royal Birkdale are Mark O’Meara, Ian Baker-Finch, Tom Watson, Johnny Miller, Lee Trevino, Arnold Palmer and Peter Thomson (on two separate occasions). Birkdale is the only course in the Open rotation that has never had a champion from the United Kingdom.

Royal Birkdale has also hosted the Ryder Cup, the Walker Cup, and the Curtis Cup.

is the home field of the National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys. It is located at Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas and opened on October 24, 1971 at a cost of $35 million. The stadium seats 65,675.

Built to replace the aging Cotton Bowl, the stadium was to have originally been a domed stadium, but the stadium could not support the weight of the entire roof, and public funding ran out before the roof support structure could be modified. This resulted in most of the stands being enclosed but not the playing field itself. This unusual arrangement - more commonly seen in European soccer stadiums - prompted Cowboys linebacker D.D. Lewis to make his now-famous quip that the “hole” in the stadium’s roof was there “so that God can watch His team.”

The stadium hosts neutral site college football games, and formerly was home to the SMU Mustangs before the NCAA shut down its football program in 1987-88. (SMU has since built its own stadium.) In November and December Texas Stadium is a major venue for high school football. It is not uncommon for there to be high school football tripleheaders at the stadium. During the 1987 high school football regular season, Texas Stadium served as a temporary home for a Dallas, TX area high school, Highland Park High School Varsity football team while a new stadium on campus was being constructed. The 2001 Big 12 football conference championship game was held at the site, as well as the 1973 Pro Bowl. In addition to football, the stadium has hosted concert events, wrestling spectaculars, and religious gatherings such as Promise Keepers and Billy Graham crusades (a Graham crusade was the first event held at Texas Stadium).

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Miller Park is a baseball stadium located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is home to the Milwaukee Brewers and was built as a replacement for Milwaukee County Stadium.

The park is located just Southwest of the intersection of Interstate 94 and Miller Park Way (U.S. Highway 41).

Miller Park was built with $310 million of public funds, which was controversial, particularly due to the fact that the team owner, Bud Selig (also the Commissioner of Baseball) was highly unpopular locally. Construction was subject to numerous delays. Groundbreaking took place on October 22, 1996, in a parking lot behind County Stadium. Construction had already been slowed, and the originally planned opening date of Opening Day 1999 had already been pushed back and was delayed even further after three construction workers were killed in a tragic accident. The massive Lampson Transi-lift crane (nicknamed “Big Blue”), brought in to build the roof, collapsed while lifting a 400 ton roof section on July 14, 1999. The stadium did not open until Opening Day 2001.

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The Azadi Stadium is Iran’s national and largest stadium. The Azadi stadium has a capacity of 90,000 people and was built to host the 1974 Asian Summer Games. The stadium is part of the much larger Azadi Sports Complex, and is surrounded by a number of grass pitches, built for training.

Azadi Stadium is where most of Iran’s national games, and sensitive matches of Iran’s Premier League, are held.

In 2002, the lower level of the stadium had seats installed, the pitch was replanted along with an underground heating system and a big screen television was added on. Stadium management also plans to later install seats in the upper level of the stadium. Once all renovations are done the stadium will have a reduced capacity of 90,000.

The stadium was once called the Aryamehr Stadium in honor of the former Shah of Iran but then changed to Azadi Stadium after the Iranian Revolution. The stadium is located in the West of Tehran, and is easily accessible for most people living in the city. Opposing teams often find it difficult to play their best game, when the stadium is full, as the noise level becomes very high.

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Nagai Stadium is a football stadium in Osaka, Japan. It’s the home of Cerezo Osaka. The stadium’s capacity is 45,409.

Nagai Stadium hosted some matches in the 2002 World Cup. The stadium will also host the 2007 IAAF World Championships in Athletics.

On July 1, 2006 it will host Japan v Fiji in the IRB Pacific 5 Nations rugby union tournament

[Source: Wikipedia]

The Circuit de Catalunya is a racetrack in Montmeló, to the north of Barcelona, Spain. It is home to the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix. With long straights and a variety of corners, the Circuit de Catalunya is seen as an all-rounder circuit. As such it is one of the sport’s most important testing ground.

The Circuit de Catalunya was built in 1991 and is often referred to as ‘Barcelona’ in the racing community, despite the fact that it is located in Montmeló. The Circuit de Catalunya should not be confused with the Montjuïc circuit, which hosted the Spanish Grand Prix four times between 1969 and 1975 and, unlike the Circuit de Catalunya, is actually located within the city of Barcelona.

Due to the fact that so much testing is done at this circuit, Formula One drivers and mechanics are extremely familiar with it. This has led to criticism that drivers and mechanics are too familiar with Catalunya, reducing the amount of on-track action.

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Memorial Stadium is a football stadium located in Lawrence, Kansas, on the campus of the University of Kansas. The stadium is dedicated as a memorial to the KU students who died in World War I. The primary use of the stadium is to host the University’s football and track and field intercollegiate athletics teams. It is the oldest college football stadium still in use west of the Mississippi River.

Memorial Stadium was built in 1920 funded by students, faculty, and fans. Originally the stadium had only east and west bleachers, which were expanded southward in 1925. The north bowl seating section was added in 1927 to give the stadium its horseshoe shape which it retains today. The west bleachers were expanded significantly upwards in 1963, with similar additions to the east side in 1965. A major repair-driven renovation in 1978 repaired concrete and upgraded home and visiting team facilities.

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The Estádio Olímpico Monumental, also known as Estádio Olímpico, is a football stadium inaugurated on September 19, 1954 in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, with a maximum capacity of 51,081 people. The stadium is owned by Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense.

The stadium was inaugurated on September 19, 1954, with a maximum capacity of 38,000 people. In 1980, the stadium was reformed, and its capacity increased to 85,000 people. In 1990, the superior ring bleachers were numbered, and Olímpico Monumental capacity decreased to 51,081 people.

On October 23, 1968, Pelé was homaged in his birthday, with the stadium lights being switched off, and the spectators sang Parabéns a Você (meaning Happy Birthday to You, in English).

On July 23, 1983, Grêmio won Copa Libertadores at Estádio Olímpico Monumental, after defeating Peñarol of Uruguay in a difficult match.

The inaugural match was played on September 19, 1954, when Grêmio beat Nacional of Uruguay 2-0. The first goal of the stadium was scored by Grêmio’s Vitor.

The stadium’s attendance record currently stands at 85,721, set on April 26, 1981 when Ponte Preta beat Grêmio 1-0.

[Source: Wikipedia]

Amon G. Carter Stadium is an open-air football stadium on the campus of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. It is the home stadium of the TCU football team, the Horned Frogs. It also hosts the annual Alltel Wireless Bowl (formerly known as the Fort Worth Bowl), which has been played since 2003. It was named after Amon G. Carter, a prominent Fort Worth businessman, newspaper publisher, and city booster.

The stadium was opened in 1930, with a seating capacity of 22,000. It was built to replace Clark Field. Dedication of the stadium was on October 11, 1930. TCU defeated the University of Arkansas, 40-0. Several different expansions of stadium’s end zone and east grand stands took place in the 1940s and 1950s. The first of which took place in 1948, with construction raising the capacity by 8,500 to 30,500. In 1951 and 1953, 2,500 and 4,000 more seats were added to the sections giving the facility 37,000 seats.

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Minute Maid Park (formerly Enron Field and Astros Field) is a baseball stadium in Houston, Texas that opened in 2000 to house the Houston Astros.

The ballpark was Houston’s first retractable-roofed stadium, protecting fans and athletes from Houston’s notoriously humid weather like its predecessor, the Astrodome, but allowing fans to also enjoy outdoor baseball, something they couldn’t enjoy in the Astrodome. It also features a grass field, compared to the Astrodome’s AstroTurf, which was generally disliked by professional baseball players. Its largest entrance is inside what was once Houston’s Union Station, and the left-field side of the stadium features a train as homage to the site’s history. The train moves along a track on top of the length of the exterior wall beyond left field whenever an Astros player hits a home run, or when the Astros win a game (the engine’s tender, traditionally used to carry coal, is filled with giant oranges in tribute to Minute Maid’s most famous product, orange juice).

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