And that's why its rated as one of the best stadiums in the World... So whatever you say my friend... A stadium built in late 1970s, still stands as the best stadium in the middle east, and one of the best in the World... Learn to appreciate this so called " crumbling, earthquake prone Iranian structure"
Sayf, I dont find it funny, I find it really annoying...every goddamn thread about KSA stuff, some Iranian has to come in and steer the discussion to Iran this, Iran that. What kind of complex do these people have, always needing to prove how wonderful iranian things are.
This was my 1st time i posted ANYTHING here in the Saudi forum, i am sorry if it offended you.... I did not mean to steer it into an Iranian discussion, i really didn't... I was only agreeing with the few Saudi members who were saying that building a 100.000 capacity stadium in Saudi Arabia is useless as you will not fill it up, so once again, i am sorry.... I am not one of those Iranian fans who barge into every discussion... Take cares my friend
arash, The point isn't that we can't fill up a large stadium, we can on the odd big match (this isn't the gulf we're talking about). The point is, the average attendance doesn't justify anything near that big (and BTW the same can be argued about Tehran to a certain extent, but I digress). --- back to the topic, Yes it's ridiculous, but there is a political message. There is the background of the decades old pledges for a new stadium in Jeddah which never materialised all the while Riyadh, in addition to having the King Fahad stadium built, had another tier added to the main stand of Malazz stadium , and to cap it Dammam's stadium is renovated. Plus, and just as important, it will be named after the new king, and so it has to be the best. Will it be 100k? I doubt it. The King Fahad Stadium's capacity is greatly exaggerated in the media and I expect this will be the same case. However it's likely to be a big dreary oval. Is it a white elephant? Certainly. So much money will be wasted on this when there are better uses for the money. Many clubs are homeless. My hometown team, Ohod, has been homeless for over two decades and it is one of the country's oldest and most venerable clubs! However Jeddah does need a better venue. I think ideally a 40-50k football only stadium which can later be expanded by something like 10k with an extra tier if the need arises. That would be a decent step up from the current ~25-27k of the current stadium, which can be turned all seater (reducing capacity but improving comfort, which a lot of people complain about). Another option would be to use that massive stadium the air defence forces have right in the centre of the city, but that's never gonna happen. The stadium plot is located here (the south side of the armed forces hospital exit): http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=21.408447,39.365687&spn=0.014843,0.027895&t=h&z=16
Thanks guys.... Any render pictures, how the stadium will look like?.... That be very nice to see.... Btw for which club is this stadium being built?
There are lots of Ittihadis in Medina. I'd say Ittihad, and Hilal, have more supporters in Medina than Ahli. Ittihad and Ohod are historically close (Ohod used to have a similar logo and even wore the same shirts, which were presented as a gift by a group of Jeddawis back in the 1930s!), but with the basketball rivalry, you're seeing some leaning towards the seaweeds. No definitive renders for the stadium. There was an old render in the nineties for a design by Norr Ltd (which I can't find on the interwebs anymore). Then a few years ago you had another design floating on the web (shown above), which has two scallop shaped roofs which move closer together to retract into a closed roof (because it rains so often in Jeddah ). The designers obviously got bored of our useless beurocrats because they presented an almost identical copy of the design for the Beijing olympic stadium design competition. As to the teams playing in it, Jeddah and maybe Mecca teams: Ittihad, Ahli, Wehda?, Rabee3????, Hera2??????????????????????
If they build anything close to that scalloped design Hijazzey showed .. it would be a massive waste of money. There are barely any games played in the afternoon, anyway. I thought they would build the stadium towards r7aili or dhahban .. oh well, anythings better than the location of the current stadium. Amma blnsba ll3jmi .. 5llo elmskeen 3la 7alo w ynbs6 blli 3ndo
Good for the Saudis . But 100k is over killing it . No one builds 100k seat stadiums anymore. It doesn’t make economic sense and its not efficient . 100k seat stadium were built before the 1970s when everybody was just trying to build bigger but now there is more emphasis on the design and being able to fill up the stadium. But then again the Saudi royal family has a lot of money so if they can do what ever they wish .
I think we have to build more stadiums like this if we wanted to host a big event like the asian cup, but 100k seat stadium is really overexaggerating, maybe 50k - 60k would be nice
they are building 1 stadium in rabigh..capacity is between 50000 to 60000..but i say who the hell is gonna play there....its a huge waste....this stadium in jeddah will be filled the first opening day and any final match
With the current birthrate in KSA and migration to the cities, in 10 years time this stadium will probably be near-full at a regular basis, but for now we'll have to settle for big derbies and important internationals, which is fine by me.
Man, nations with higher populations than us can't fill up 100'000 seaters regularly. Everyone saw that in the 60s and 70s and started building smaller 60'000 seaters instead.
There were thousands of empty seats in Riyadh Monday, but I thought the attendance excellent and electric. Not defending white elephants, but you get my point; the next 50k+ seater wont be built any time soon, so anything near that number has my support.
As long as its modern and with all the new equipments and developments in football stadiums then this will be good stuff. Sure it might be hard to fill it up, but it will be scary for many teams nontheless.
This isn't a white elephant it's a white whale. It just keeps getting more ridiculous. It's size is wasteful (I disagree with Saudi64 a full 40k seat stadium is more imposing than a half full 80k seater). The argument about population growth is just bunk. Riyadh and Jeddah are already large cities, if they haven't developed a large enough market now, they never will. Face it, the attendance problem is not down to a small catchment area. It's location is dreadful. They've moved the site to the north, on a plot next to Radwa farms. So we'll be cooped up with the chickens all the way up in Thuwwal. As for the proposed stadium in KAEC, take it with a huge pinch of salt. I doubt it will materialise anytime soon (or other fluff in their masterplan).