The best seats in the world: A look at seven mega-stadiums now being built
Stadiums are where history is made – sites of protest and celebration, shared experiences. New formats are adding rooftop gardens, cafes, timber work, walkways.
When the Ancient Greeks first carved steps into a hillside so they could sit around and watch the footraces, they didn’t know what they were starting.
By the 7th century BCE, the stadium would become an architectural icon, and far more than just a monument to sport.
The word itself comes from the Greek “stadion”, describing the approximately 600-ft distance covered in the ancient footraces. These arenas have long served as sports and entertainment venues, spaces for concert and community, sites of protest and the making of history.
Think of African-American Jesse Owens’s four golds at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, with Hitler in attendance; or the Gay Games at San Francisco’s Kezar Stadium in 1982. Think of footballer Colin Kaepernick taking a knee as the US national anthem played in 2016; and the arc one could draw backwards, to the Black Power salutes by American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos, on the podium, at the 1968 Games in Mexico City.
Think of Chinese gymnast Zhou Yaqin, eyes wide, bringing her silver medal to her lips and biting it, in imitation of the two women beside her.
Hearts continue to be won, and history continues to be made, in these arenas.
And how quickly the space themselves grew. By 80 BCE, already now a symbol of the wealth and soft power of a nation-state, they were seating more than 20,000 at a time, in Ancient Rome. It wasn’t just sports that people gathered to watch. There were deadly gladiatorial battles, and public executions.
Taylor Swift’s economy-altering Eras concerts are perhaps the most dramatic recent example of the non-sports use of a stadium. In the 1950s, there were also the “crusades” held by evangelist Billy Graham, which drew a crowd of about 100,000 to New York’s Yankee Stadium in 1957.
The largest recorded gathering at a single such venue, meanwhile, was for the FIFA World Cup final between Brazil and Uruguay, at Rio de Janeiro’s Maracana Municipal Stadium, in 1950. An estimated 199,854 spectators packed into the space (built to accommodate about 200,000 standing spectators; its capacity has since been reduced to under 80,000.)
“Elites have constructed stadiums as monuments to affluence, technological wonder, and exclusivity... marginalized groups have transformed them into venues to express their desires and discontents,” writes Frank Andre Guridy, professor of history and African-American studies at Columbia University, in his book, The Stadium: An American History of Politics, Protest, and Play (2024).
From pro-civil rights to anti-Nazi rallies, arenas such as New York’s Barclays Center Plaza continue to serve as political epicentres. “I call it the mecca,” a New York Times report on the Black Lives Matter protests recorded a protestor as saying. “(Barclays Center) is where everything happens.”
***
Through history, these arenas have served as signals to the world: this is who we are; how we view ourselves; what we can do. This is the scale at which we enjoy our leisure.
The tiered design set off the practice of socially stratified seating, which is today exemplified by private boxes and luxury suites. “From the ancient world to the present, stadiums have helped stage and preserve social hierarchies,” Guridy writes.
Innovations began afresh in the wake of World War 2, driven by new technology. Retractable roofs and artificial turfs appeared. As at cinema halls, stadiums began to cash in on more than tickets and, by the 1920s, merchandise sections and organised concession stands had been added.
The Houston Astrodome, built in 1965, was the world’s first fully enclosed and air-conditioned stadium. Since then, there have been moveable fields, dynamic LED facades, warmed floors for winter games and seamless biometric entry systems.
There have been massive temporary stadiums too. Perhaps the most notable of these was the arena made from shipping containers, to serve as Qatar’s FIFA World Cup venue. It was named Stadium 974, for the country’s international dialling code, and the number of shipping containers used. But…
***
“Stadiums are by and large white elephants,” says Amol Prabhu, a partner at the architecture firm Shashi Prabhu & Associates, which designed Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium in 1974 and renovated it in 2009. “Very few are both financially and environmentally sustainable beyond the few days of gameplay that they host a year.”
Newer stadiums are attempting to address this. Cairo’s Al-Ahly football arena will also offer spaces that remain open to the public on non-game days. These will include cafes, a team museum and a team shop.
Manchester United’s upcoming stadium aims to be a “mixed-use miniature city of the future”. That grand descriptor is unlikely to hold, but it does promise public parks, a cafe, an open-air cinema, a museum and a public plaza, all of which will be accessible beyond match days.
Amid a heightened focus on sustainability, some of the mega-stadiums being built around the world today are all-timber structures or have sunken seating bowls to reduce the need for cooling.
Transit-oriented development is being prioritised. “The Arctic Arena being built in Norway is designed to prioritise foot, bike, and public transport, with minimal parking available on-site,” says Knut Hovland, partner at the country’s Nordic Office of Architecture.
A new train station is being built, directly abutting the Manchester United stadium, in an effort to ensure “it’s not a fortress surrounded by a sea of cars”, as Norman Foster, founder and executive chairman of the architecture firm Foster + Partners, put it.
***
Here at home, we have grand stadiums, but we also struggle.
India is home to what is currently the world’s largest sports arena, the 110,000-seater Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. (It was built to seat about 135,000, but as often happens, not all seats can be counted in the official capacity because of obstructions such as in-stadia branding and screens.)
But Indian stadiums have a long way to go before they can compare with some of the best in the world, says sports writer and columnist Sharda Ugra. The spectator experience, in its most basic form, includes connectivity and access, seamless entry, restrooms and ramps.
“Better stadiums will emerge when administrators shift their focus from treating spectators as dispensable commodities to treating them as consumers,” Ugra adds. “Some of the oldest ones with the best views, such as the N stand of M Chinnaswamy stadium in Benguluru, have the shabbiest staircases, dangerous access areas which could almost be fire hazards, and very few amenities. It says a lot about how stadiums are seen and celebrated, but the experience is overlooked.”
Indian stadiums have the potential to thrive as community hubs with impactful modifications, adds Joy Bhattacharjya, CEO of the Prime Volleyball League (PVL) and project director of the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup.
Innovative bowl shapes, which several global stadiums already have incorporated into their designs, can bring fans closer to the action and amplify the energy of the crowd, he says.
“Women and children are a sizeable part of the sporting demographic, but the state of women’s and children’s restrooms in some of India’s top arenas are a stark reflection of how they are viewed within this system,” Bhattacharjya says. “We also need more small, well-connected stadiums sprouting across cities, instead of the monoliths that are so hard to maintain. After all, stadiums should be central to the local community, and should foster local engagement.”
Read on to see how some of the biggest arenas now being built around the world are attempting to do this too.
.
TAKE A SEAT
There is a rash of buildings, each a roughly oval shape, coming up around the world. Grand sports arenas are being erected in Egypt and Morocco, the UK, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Norway. The explosion in media-rights revenue in recent years has likely provided a boost, says sports writer and columnist Sharda Ugra. Such a boom leads to a rise in sporting events, which drives the construction and renovation of stadiums. Here’s a look at seven of the biggest.
Grand Stade Hassan II, Morocco
Capacity: 115,000
Set to open in 2030
In a nod to the country’s rich culture and nomadic past, this arena in Casablanca is being built to resemble a massive tent, the precise shape inspired by those used at the annual Moussem event (an ancient traditional gathering of the tribes of the Sahara, now celebrated as a cultural festival in Morocco).
“The tent is the primordial form of architecture, of shelter and shared space, a notion we want to invoke within our spectators,” says Linna Choi, co-founder and principal of the French- Moroccan architectural studio Oualalou + Choi, which is working with the British branch of the design firm Populous on the project.
The tent membrane, made of aluminium lattice and held up by 26 masts, will protect from heat and rain, while acting as a sustainable feature that harvests rainwater and generates solar energy. The arena is set to open in time for the 2030 World Cup, being hosted jointly by Morocco, Portugal and Spain.
To keep it from becoming a white elephant, the Grand Stade Hassan II (named in memory of a recent king), will feature a series of gardens, plazas, and sports fields, all sheltered by the tent, which will be accessible year-round.
.
The Manchester United Stadium, UK
Capacity: 100,000
Set to open in 2030
The new home arena of Manchester United is being designed to look like an “umbrella”, with three towering masts inspired by the club’s trident emblem. The club’s signature red will feature prominently, with the aim of making the arena visible “from 25 miles away”, the British architecture firm Foster + Partners has said.
Being built at a projected cost of £2 billion (about $2.58 billion), it will be the first stadium in the UK bigger than the iconic Wembley (which seats 90,000).
Unusually, for a football stadium, the arena will have open and outward-facing wraparound balconies.
A new train station is being built, directly abutting the arena, to ease public access. Pedestrian routes in the area are being re-examined too. Additional plans include public parks, a cafe, an open-air cinema and a museum, all of which will be accessible beyond match days.
.
King Salman Stadium, Saudi Arabia
Capacity: 92,000
Due to open in 2029
Look closely at the design for the King Salman Stadium in Riyadh and one sees a germinating seed breaking through the earth. The design, by the Australian firm Populous, aims to evoke a sense of growth.
There is plenty of actual green too. Gardens and rooftop walking paths offer panoramic views of the adjacent King Abdulaziz Park, which is connected to the stadium via a 9-km sports track. Green walls and ceilings arch over 96,500 sq metres of the venue, to protect players and viewers from the harsh desert climate.
Upon completion, the facility will also act as the headquarters of the Saudi Arabian national football team. The arena will serve as a central venue when Saudi Arabia hosts the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
The masterplan includes football training grounds, an aquatic centre, zones for player-fan interaction, and a community sports park. Landscaped walkways that will serve as access points to the stadium on match days will stay open to the public on non-game days too.
.
AS Roma Stadium, Italy
Capacity: About 65,000
Due to open in 2028
Since 1953, the Italian football club AS Roma has shared Stadio Olimpico with the rival club Lazio.
In a bid to remedy this, the architecture studio Populous has been commissioned to design a stadium inspired by classical Roman architecture. It is expected to have the largest singular curved stand of seating in Europe.
“The stadium’s iconic design, in an elevated location in Pietralata, with views across the city and beautiful surrounding landscaping, means it will become one of the most iconic and recognisable in world football,” Declan Sharkey, senior principal at Populous Italia, said in a statement.
In developments sadly typical of countries with unusually high levels of corruption in government, there have already been concerns raised over allegedly unfair land acquisition for the project, and potential loss of greenery. (There are of course other projects on this list that have likely faced dissent, but resistance is hard to track in countries where it is rendered unviable or invisible.)
.
Al-Ahly Football Club Stadium, Egypt
Capacity: 42,000
Due to open in 2028
This one has been 30 years in the making.
Envisioned as a national landmark and home of the elite Al-Ahly football club, this stadium in Cairo features an asymmetrical facade with a striking structural arch that supports the roof, and a unique sunken pitch.
The sunken bowl allows the structure to reduce ambient heat in the desert city. “We are also exploring the use of groundwater cooling, and the integration of local vegetation, to supplement this and address the expected rise in temperatures due to climate change,” says Russell Gilchrist, principal and design director at Gensler, the architecture studio behind the project.
The asymmetric bowl design with double-tiered stands on the west, north, and south sides, will also bring fans closer to the action, Gilchrist says.
“One of the most innovative features is the asymmetric cable net roof, which we envision will be placed on top of a structural arch — an approach seen for the first time in stadium design,” he adds. The dynamic display screens that make up the facade will make it visible from ground and air, he adds, providing opportunities for digital projections and customisable graphics “by sponsors and the community”.
A “public square” will act as both a gateway to the stadium and a gathering space, with a capacity to hold up to 30,000 people, and with amenities that will include a team shop, cafes, and an Al-Ahly museum.
.
Arctic Arena, Norway
Capacity: 10,000
Due to open in 2027
This is a big arena for a country with a population of about 5.6 million.
Europe’s northernmost stadium, situated in Bodo, will serve as the home of the Bodo / Glimt men’s and women’s football teams.
Its angular exterior is inspired by the shape of diamonds, to symbolise the resilience and strength of the Norwegian people. This façade will likely have a bit of a glint too, since it will be covered at least partially in solar panels. The heating system for the space will use thermal energy generated by waste incineration.
Material efficiency and simple assembly on-site have been the goals, says Knut Hovland, partner at the country’s Nordic Office of Architecture, which is building the arena.
In another sustainable measure, the structure sort of balances itself. The large, cantilevered roof is designed to keep itself upright, “somewhat like a balancing wine-bottle holder,” Hovland says. This has reduced the need for deep excavation and heavy foundations.
Wood and recyclable aluminium will be used on exterior and interior surfaces, with openings and entrances designed to offer views of the sky, Northern Lights, and (on the rare occasion) the sun.
.
Forest Green Rovers Ecopark Stadium, UK
Capacity: 5,000
Opening date: To be decided
This is a relatively tiny space and doesn’t yet have an estimated opening date, but it made the list because it is set to be the first modern-era all-timber football stadium, and will be run entirely on renewable energy.
The Ecopark in Gloucestershire will be the home of the football club Forest Green Rovers.
It will be built entirely of durable, recyclable wood (rather than concrete or steel).
“When you bear in mind that around three quarters of the lifetime carbon impact of any stadium comes from its building materials, you can see why that’s so important,” Dale Vince, Forest Green Rovers chairman, said in a statement.
In addition to sports facilities, training pitches and a sports-science hub, there are plans for a nature reserve on site, a public transport hub, and the restoration of a nearby segment of the historic Stroudwater canal.
The stadium is being designed by the British firm Zaha Hadid Architects.
.
India’s biggest, the world’s biggest
* The Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad is currently the largest in the world, with a capacity of 110,000. (It was built to seat about 135,000, but as often happens, not all seats can be counted in the official capacity because of obstructions such as in-stadia branding and screens.)
* Designed by the Australian firm Populous and built by India’s Larsen & Toubro for the Gujarat Cricket Association, work began in 2015 and was completed in 2020, at a cost of ₹800 crore.
* Spread across 63 acres, the sports enclave stands on the site of what was once the Motera Stadium in Sardar Vallabhbhai Complex, built in 1982, with a seating capacity of 49,000.
* The Modi enclave has six indoor pitches, another 11 pitches on the main square, a football ground and a track-and-field space.
* There are 120 toilets within the stadium and a hospitality section for each stand.
* One gate opens onto the Motera Metro station, for easy public-transport access.
* The indoor section, which has yet to open, will feature basketball, badminton and table tennis courts. These areas of the sports complex will be accessible on non-game days.
