Stade d'Oyem – stadium description

It's by far the northernmost professional stadium in Gabon. While widely understood to be built in Oyem, it's in fact located in a remote village of Ewormekok, north of the city, along the N2 road. Beyond reach on foot, the stadium has no long-term tenant and was built specifically for the 2017 Cup of Nations.

Its construction was possible thanks to cooperation with the Chinese government, who supplied design and contractors, while ensuring that vast majority of workers on site are Gabonese (over 90%, though almost exclusively lowest-paid jobs).

Official groundbreaking took place in September, 2015 with president Ali Bongo Ondimba in attendance. Delivery date was initially expected to be November, 2016, but the stadium was only operational in late December, just 2 weeks before the Cup of Nations. Even during the tournament its perimeter wasn't done.

The stadium is oval but doesn't have room for a running track. Corners of the field are less than 10 meters away from the field while central parts of both the ends and side stands are over 30 meters away. The seating bowl provides 14 rows of seating on each end, while up to 40 rows along the sides. However, due to the roof structure, some of the uppermost rows have restricted sightlines.

The roof itself was raised compared to the initial design in order to incorporate floodlights rather than placing them on four masts. Its peak is at 30 meters, which – due to the stadium's location – makes the stadium the tallest structure in miles.

Spectators enter the stadium through four major ramps around the stadium. These lead to the main promenade with toilets and catering facilities, however the promenade drops by one floor behind each goal rather than remaining level.