Guangzhou Evergrande start work on 100,000-capacity stadium

Chinese Super League champions, Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao Football Club, have begun construction of a new stadium costing 12 billion yuan (US$1.7bn). Boasting a capacity of 100,000, it will be one of the world’s largest arenas.

The club’s new state-of-the-art, 150,000sqft home will be marginally larger than FC Barcelona’s Nou Camp and is set to benefit from some 168 VIP suites. It is scheduled to be ready by the end of 2022,  as Xinhua news agency reported.

Guangzhou Evergrande Football Stadium will have an eye-catching lotus flower design wrapped around it, a nod to the southern city’s status as China’s “Flower City”; and is the latest work from the Shanghai-based American designer, Hasan Syed, following an initial concept from the Evergrande Group Chairman, Xu Jiayin.

The stadium will be – for a time at least – the world’s largest football venue, until Nou Camp expands to 105,000 seats after its ongoing redevelopment.

Eight-time Chinese champions Guangzhou Evergrande, who are coached by Italian FIFA World Cup winner, Fabio Cannavaro, and have won the AFC Champions League twice, average about 50,000 fans for home matches.

New arena for SIPG

Evergrande’s Chinese Super League (CSL) rivals, Shanghai SIPG, are also constructing a new arena, Pudong Football Stadium, that will seat 33,000. The venue, designed by HPP Architects, is expected to be finished in 2021.

In addition to the Xujiahui Sports Park, which is currently under construction, the stadium is the second sports facility in the city currently being planned by the Shanghai office of HPP.

Hosting plans

China PR will host the newly expanded 2021 FIFA Club World Cup and the AFC Asian Cup 2023, while Shanghai is interested in holding the Olympics.

Guangzhou Evergrande’s ambitions are that it’s brand new, world-class sports complex will be host for the opening ceremony for the 2023 Asian Games.

The club – whose majority shareholders are the Evergrande Real Estate Group (56.71%) and the e-commerce company Alibaba Group (37.81%), while the rest of the shares are traded in the Chinese OTC system – currently plays at the 58,500-capacity Tianhe Stadium.

Source: AFP

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