Shaoxing Stadium – stadium description

Ever since it opened in 2014, this stadium offers China’s largest retractable roof. With an opening area of 12,350 m² it surpasses even many larger stadia around the world, including the likes of giant AT&T Stadium in Texas!

For three years leading architects, contractors and suppliers participated in the creation of a truly impressive sports complex, spreading across 24 hectares in the western district of Keqiao. The football/athletics stadium is of course its largest element, offering space for 40,000 spectators and a floor space of 77,500 m².

The whole building, which is its defining feature, is covered with PTFE panels. Formed in a scales-like pattern, there are 428 single sheets of membrane. And while they seem similar in size and shape, they’re in fact differing between one-another, making the building more challenging.

By day these create a seemingly light and sleek building and by night each panel can shine with a different colour thanks to LED lighting. This allows the creation of immense colour patterns spanning across nearly 50,000 m². And, which is rare itself, the illumination also allows to light up the interior.

Along with an indoor arena, Olympic natatorium and a training stadium the complex consumed ($820 million upon opening). All venues were first used during the 2014 Zhejiang Provincial Games and a year later for inter-city games.

And while such tournaments are common in China, this stadium (unlike many that entirely deserve to be called white elephants) also has a football host. Zhejiang Yiteng FC have one of China’s most impressive stadia for their use, though it should be mentioned that filling the stands is far beyond their current reach.