Dalian Shide Stadium Rendering

Stadium Name: Dalian Shide Stadium
Location: Dalian Liaoning, China
Team: Dalian Shide F.C., China
Capacity: Unknown
Opening: Unknown
Cost: Unknown
Architects: NBBJ Architects (US)

Background:
Dalian Shide F.

Time is short today, so the weekly stadium spotlight series takes a brief look at a stadium that has a considerable transformation planned for it.

In May, the twelve host cities for the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil were announced. One of the winning bids was Fortaleza, the state capital of Ceará in Northeastern Brazil.

For almost 60 years, Lyon have been playing in the Stade de Gerland, a venerable old stadium built in 1914 and a World Cup finals venue in 1998. But their recent run of success of eight consecutive championships from 2002 to 2008 has Lyon planning a rich new future at the Grand Stade in eastern Lyon.

Donbass Arena opened on August 29th, 2009, and this week will host its first international and one of the biggest game's in Ukraine's history: the second-leg of their World Cup 2010 qualifier playoff against Greece. Ukraine are in great shape to qualify after a 0-0 draw in Athens this weekend.

The game could be taking place in no more beautiful setting.

The league authority would have a lot to answer and convince the large number of dwindling local football supporters over the decision to admit another foreign club into the foray.
"Having foreign teams in the league would add colours and help to boast the standard of play in the league." as what the league authority used to rationale the largely unpopular move, especially among those remnant fans of those "sit-out" clubs like Tanjong Pagar United, Jurong FC and Sembawang Rangers.

That is unlikely to be the final name for the stadium, but "rectangular" is a fitting working name as the 31,500 capacity stadium, which will host soccer and rugby, is being made in part to replace the reliance on the oval stadia of Melbourne suitable for Australian Rules Football and cricket.

Construction on the new stadium began last year, and here's the progress so far (live webcam here), with a scheduled opening of May 2010.

In a week that saw UEFA finally confirm that the Euro 2012 final will take place in Kiev, Ukraine, it seems only fitting to look at the stadium under construction that will host it.

The Olympic National Stadium in Kiev has a long history, first opening in 1923 as "Red Stadium" (you can guess why), and then going through further name changes that reflected the political situation in Ukraine: Stalin Respublikanskiy Stadium (1941-1953), Khrushchev Respublikanskiy Stadium (1953-1966), Kiev Central Stadium (1963-1978), Respublikanskiy Stadium (1978-1996) and finally NSC Olimpiysky (1996-).

Chinese Super League Beijing Guaon are just one of a handful of sides who have expressed an interest in joining next season's SLeague. Another CSL side, Chengdu Blades, are also believed to be interested in entering a team in Singapore.
Three Chinese clubs have previously played in the league and the results have been less than flattering.

In 1995, the final decision had to be made on the design for the Stade de France, to host the 1998 World Cup final and become the new national stadium. Choosing between the two finalist designs, outgoing prime minister Edouard Balladur decided to go with Michel Macary's design: the one we now know as the Stade de France, which is nice enough.