Spodek (saucer in Polish) is a multipurpose arena complex in Katowice, Poland, opened in 1971 at 35 Korfanty Street under the name Wojewódzka Hala Widowiskowo-Sportowa w Katowicach (Voivodeship Sport and Show Arena in Katowice), under which it is known in the Polish technical/architectural literature, and under which it formally functioned until 1997.
Aside from the main dome, the complex includes a gym, an ice rink, a hotel and three large car parks. It is the largest indoor venue of its kind in Poland. It hosts many important cultural and business events. Music concerts are especially common non-sport events. Spodek can hold 11,500 people, although this number is in practice limited to 10,000 or even 8,000 due to stage set-ups obscuring the view. Its name is “saucer” in Polish as it resembles a tilted flying saucer. Spodek is a major contribution to the cultural significance of Katowice in Poland, especially for the younger generations.
It has played host to many up-and-coming bands, such as Chumbawumba in 1997, as well as dozens of world-famous bands including Boney M., The Cure, Delirious?, Deep Purple, Depeche Mode, Dream Theater, Elton John, Genesis, Eric Clapton, Gary Moore, Green Day, Iron Maiden, Jean-Michel Jarre, Mike Oldfield, Megadeth, Napalm Death, Jethro Tull, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Rammstein, Robbie Williams, Slipknot, Sting, The Prodigy, Overkill, Tina Turner, Avril Lavigne.
The idea of building a large venue originated in 1955, while Katowice was temporarily renamed Stalinogród. A contest was held to select the best design. Initially, it was to be constructed on the outskirts of town, but the Voivodeship National Council decided it should be built near the city center. A mining waste dump site classified “2A” was chosen for construction.
The classification “2A” indicated medium mining damage with a possibility of local cave-ins. While excavating the foundations, the workers dug through coal instead of soil. Soon after construction began, rumors of design flaws in the new building spread, including the rumour that the dome would collapse when the scaffolding was removed. Because of this, in 1964, construction was halted for 18 months. Spodek’s architects and chief engineers entered the dome when the supports were dismantled as a response to those rumors; clearly they survived. Before opening the building to the public, endurance tests were conducted - 3,500 soldiers marched into the hall and vibration of the building was measured. The outcome was positive.
Throughout Spodek’s history, rumors have circulated concerning the extent of disrepair at the structure, concealed cracks or even its “falling apart”. However, these rumours are unsupported by any evidence.
The City of Manchester Stadium, also known as COMS or Eastlands, is a stadium in Manchester, England. Originally designed as part of Manchester’s failed bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics, the stadium was built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games at a cost of ?110 million. After the Games, it was converted for use as a football ground and became the home of Manchester City F.C., which moved there from Maine Road in 2003 after signing a 250-year lease.
The stadium is bowl-shaped, with two tiers all the way around the ground and a third tier along the two side stands. As of 1 July 2009, it is the fourth-largest stadium in the FA Premier League and the 12th-largest in the United Kingdom, with a seating capacity of 47,726. On 14 May 2008, it hosted the UEFA Cup Final.
Plans to build a stadium in east Manchester were formulated around 1990 as part of the city’s bid to host the 2000 Summer Olympics; Manchester City Council commissioned a design for an 80,000 capacity stadium on a brownfield site known colloquially as Eastlands. However, in October 1993 the games were awarded to Sydney, Australia. Manchester subsequently made a successful bid to host the 2002 Commonwealth Games, using the stadium plans from the Olympic bid. In 1996, the planned stadium competed with Wembley Stadium to gain funding to become the national stadium, but the money was used to redevelop Wembley. The stadium’s foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister, Tony Blair, in December 1999, and construction began in January 2000. The stadium was designed by Arup and constructed by John Laing at a cost of approximately ?110 million, ?77 million of which was provided by Sport England, with the remainder funded by Manchester City Council. For the Commonwealth Games, the stadium featured a single lower tier running around three sides of the athletics track, and second tiers to the two sides, with an open-air temporary stand at one end. The first public event at the stadium was the opening ceremony of the 2002 Commonwealth Games on 25 July 2002. Among the dignitaries present at the ceremony was Queen Elizabeth II. During the ten days of competition, the stadium hosted all athletics events and the rugby sevens. Four Commonwealth records were set at the stadium, including the women’s triple jump and the women’s 5000 m.
Conseco Fieldhouse is a sports arena in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It is the home of the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association and the Indiana Fever of the Women’s National Basketball Association. The Indiana Ice of the United States Hockey League also use Conseco Fieldhouse as their home arena for a few games a year. Additionally, other entertainment events such as concerts are frequently scheduled there. The name is a result of the naming rights to the venue being sold to Conseco, the financially-troubled financial services organization based in nearby Carmel.
Conseco Fieldhouse replaced Market Square Arena as the home of the Indiana Pacers on November 6, 1999. It is notable for being the first modern “retro”-styled facility in the NBA.
In 2002, Conseco Fieldhouse served as one of two sites for the FIBA Men’s World Basketball Championship, sharing the honors with RCA Dome.
The venue has hosted four Big Ten Conference men’s basketball tournaments (2002, 2004, 2006, and 2008) and it will host the tournament for five straight years starting in 2008 after it won the Big Ten bid over Chicago and the United Center.
Conseco Fieldhouse has received widespread acclaim as one of the finest facilities in all of the sports world. It is designed after Hinkle Fieldhouse at Butler University and the other great fieldhouses that covered the state of Indiana with standing room only crowds on Friday nights in the formative years of high school basketball. The fieldhouse is a veritable museum to the rich heritage that is Indiana basketball.
In 2005, 2006, and 2007, Conseco Fieldhouse was ranked the No. 1 venue in the NBA according to the Sports Business Journal/Sports Business Daily Reader Survey. In 2006 The Ultimate Sports Road Trip reaffirmed Conseco Fieldhouse as the best venue in all 4 of the major sports leagues. ?The Ultimate Sports Road Trip has recently concluded a re-scoring and re-evaluation of all 122 franchises in the four major sports, based on our personal visits to each of the teams in a journey that began in 1998. Based on our criteria, Conseco Fieldhouse has once again withstood scrutiny to be named the ?best of the best? in the four major sports. Everything about Conseco Fieldhouse is top notch, a sparkling venue in a sparkling city, said Farrell and Kulyk.?
In October 2004, Conseco Fieldhouse hosted the 2004 FINA Short Course World Swimming Championships. A 25 meter 300,000 gallon competition pool and 175,000 gallon warm-up pool were temporarily installed. A total of 71,659 tickets were sold for the four day event. The crowd on the evening of Saturday, October 11th, 2004 set a record for the largest attendance at a U.S. Swimming event outside of the Olympics with 11,488 people.
Conseco also played host to WCW Sin, a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Championship Wrestling, on January 14, 2001. It also hosted The Great American Bash on July 23, 2006 . Conseco will also host the 21st SummerSlam on August 17, 2008.
The Feijenoord Stadion, better known by its nickname de Kuip (the Tub), is a stadium in Rotterdam, completed in 1937. Today it’s called “Stadion Feyenoord”. The name is derived from the area “Feijenoord” in Rotterdam, and from the club with the same name.
Capacity at completion: 64,000. Maximum capacity: 69,000 (1949). Present day capacity: 51,177.
It is the home stadium of football club Feyenoord, one of the traditional top teams in the Netherlands. It has also long been one of the home grounds of the Dutch national team, having hosted over 150 international matches, with the first one being a match against Belgium on May 2, 1937. Also, a record number of ten European finals has taken place in the Feijenoord stadium. The last one was the 2002 UEFA Cup final in which Feyenoord defeated Borussia Dortmund 3-2.
In 2000, the Feyenoord stadium hosted the final of Euro 2000, played in the Netherlands and Belgium, with France beating Italy in extra time.
Leen van Zandvliet, Feyenoord’s president in the 1930s came up with the idea of building an entirely new stadium, unlike any other on the continent, with two free hanging tiers and no obstacles blocking the view. The great examples at that time were Highbury, where the West and East stands had been recently built as a double deck, and Yankee Stadium in New York City. Johannes Brinkman and Leendert van der Vlugt, the famous designers of the van Nelle factories in Rotterdam were asked to design a stadium out of glass, concrete and steel, cheap materials at that time. They came up with a design that is modern even in this era. In fact, “de Kuip” acted as an example for many of the greatest stadia we know today, eg Nou Camp. The stadium was co-financed by the billionaire Daniël George van Beuningen, who made his fortune in World War I, exporting coal from Germany to England through neutral Netherlands.
In World War II, the stadium nearly got torn down, because the German occupiers needed the materials. Fortunately it didn’t come to that. After the war the stadium got extra seats (1949) and stadium lights (1958).
On 29 October 1991 De Kuip was named as being one of Rotterdam’s monuments. In 1994 the stadium was extensively renovated to its present form. It became an all seater and the roof was extended to cover all the seats. An extra building was constructed for commercial use by Feyenoord, it also houses a restaurant and a museum, The Home of History. The stadium has hosted concerts since 1978. The first ones were Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton. Others who have played there include Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, U2, Michael Jackson, David Bowie, Dido, Guns N’ Roses, Genesis and Dire Straits. Since 1996 the stadium didn’t host many concerts anymore, because of the competition of the Amsterdam ArenA. As of January 2007 the stadium can be found in 3D format on Google Earth.
