Sapporo Dome

Sapporo Dome
Hiroba
Location	Hitsujigaoka 1, Toyohira-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan
Public transit	Sapporo Municipal Subway: ; Tōhō Line at Fukuzumi
Owner	Sapporo City
Operator	Sapporo Dome Co.,Ltd.
Capacity	41,484 (football) ; 42,270 (baseball)
Field size	Left Field – 100 m (328.1 ft); Center Field – 122 m (400.3 ft); Right Field – 100 m (328.1 ft); Backstop – 25 m (82 ft); Height of Outfield Fence – 5.75 m (18.9 ft)
Construction
Opened	June 3, 2001
Architect	Hiroshi Hara
Tenants
	Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo (2001–present); Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (2004–2022); Major sporting events hosted; 2002 FIFA World Cup; 2019 Rugby World Cup; 2020 Summer Olympics football; Pine Bowl 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2016;

43°0′54.7″N 141°24′35.3″E / 43.015194°N 141.409806°E / 43.015194; 141.409806

Sapporo Dome (札幌ドーム, Sapporo Dōmu) is a stadium located in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, and is primarily used for association football. It is the home field of the association football club Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo, and was also home to the baseball team Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters through the 2022 Nippon Professional Baseball season. It was a football venue for the 2020 Summer Olympics,^[4] was the venue for the opening ceremony of the 2017 Asian Winter Games, and was used for 2 matches of the 2019 Rugby World Cup.^[5] The stadium was previously a venue of the 2002 FIFA World Cup. The dome will be used as the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2030 Winter Olympics if Sapporo is successful in their bid.

History

Sapporo Dome in Winter

Sapporo Dome opened in 2001 with 41,580 seats. The stadium hosted three games during the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Germany vs Saudi Arabia, Argentina vs England and Italy vs Ecuador; all three matches were in the first round.

The Dome hosted the opening ceremonies of the 2007 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships on February 22 and hosted the closing ceremonies of the championships on March 4. It also made history as being the first venue where both indoor and nighttime skiing events took place for the first time on a world championship or Winter Olympic Games level with competitions in the cross-country skiing sprints (men's and women's individual, and men's and women's team) and the cross-country portion of the 7.5 km sprint event in the Nordic combined. In order to generate snow, the stadium used its turf conversion hovering system to facilitate the snow making process for the skiing competitions.^[6] The opening ceremony featured Maki Ohguro, a local artist from Sapporo, Japanese drum demonstrations and other performances paying tributes to local customs and traditions.^[6] For the championships, seating capacity was reduced to 30,000.^[6]

The Dome was used as a super special stage in Rally Japan in both 2008 and 2010.

In late 2009, renovations with the possibility of increasing the capacity up to 53,796 were finished. These renovations also included space for more food outlets, an extra video screen, two extra changing rooms (to accommodate preseason matches in the NFL International Series, which have up to 75 players per team) and further media area as part of new office buildings attached to the stadium. As part of these renovations, the surface area of the arena itself was decreased to allow for more seating.

Beginning in 2023, the dome will be soccer-only, as the Fighters will move into their own new stadium in nearby Kitahiroshima.

Retractable surface

The Dome switches between two entirely different surfaces: Baseball games are played on an underlying artificial turf field, while association 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 lower bowl is then rotated 90 degrees. Conversion from football to baseball occurs in reverse. Due to the retraction of seats, the Stadium has a capacity of 40,476 for baseball games.

Other stadiums that feature sliding pitches include the GelreDome in the Netherlands, Veltins-Arena in Germany, the split pitch of London's Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, United States, and Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada, United States; however, unlike these four facilities (with the exception of Allegiant Stadum), the Sapporo Dome has a fixed roof.