Sapporo Dome Website
Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters Website
Consadole Sapporo Website
Background and History
The Sapporo Dome in Sapporo, Japan was built in 2001 with the 2002 FIFA World Cup in mind the following year. This remarkable stadium has a maximum capacity of 53,000 after renovations in 2009.
The Sapporo Dome is the home stadium for football team Consadole Sapporo as well as baseball team Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters.
The stadium hosted three first round matches in the 2002 FIFA World Cup - Germany v Saudi Arabia, Argentina v England, and Italy v Ecuador. It is also one of the planned football venues for the 2020 Summer olympics, is the planned venue for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2017 Asian Winter Games, and is a planned venue of 2019 Rugby World Cup.
Unique factor
The Sapporo Dome has one particularly unique feature. It switches between two entirely different surfaces depending on what sport is being played (baseball or football). The pitch is retractable as you can see in the images below - one shows a baseball pitch and one shows a football pitch.
Baseball games are played on an artificial turf field, while football games are held on a grass pitch that slides into and out of the stadium as needed.
Conversion from baseball to football begins with the storage of the baseball field's artificial turf. Once finished, a set of lower bowl bleachers rotate from an angled position for baseball to a parallel position. A set of main bowl seats on one end of the dome then retracts, and the football pitch is slid into the stadium. The video below shows the Sapporo dome pitch transformation process.
Unique Rating - 10/10
Wow! The transformation process with the pitches at the Sapporo Dome is truly unique which is why I have given it a rating of 10/10. The smooth transition which can be seen in the video above is a magnificent example of technology.
No comments:
Post a Comment