Sapporo Dome

Location: Sapporo City, Japan
Capacity:

• 41,484 (football)
• 42,270 (baseball)

Home teams:

• Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (baseball)
• Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo (soccer)

Resembling some kind of space ship or giant mushroom, the Sapporo Dome is one of the world’s most impressive stadiums. Located in Toyohira-ku, Sapporo, Japan, it is primarily used for baseball and football. It is home to Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and the association football club Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo.

Opened in 2001 ahead of the 2002 FIFA World Cup (where it hosted three group stage games), the stadium holds approximately 42,000 spectators. It also hosted two games for the 2019 Rugby World Cup and is set to host football games during the 2020 Summer Olympics (postponed).

Its modern design allows the venue to switch entirely between two surfaces; an underlying artificial turf field for baseball and a grass pitch for rugby and soccer games which. The grass pitch is located outside the stadium allowing the grass to grow naturally, sliding into and out of the stadium as required.

Conversion from baseball to football fields begin with the storage of the baseball field’s surface. Once this has been done, a set of lower bowl bleachers rotate from a baseball diamond to a parallel position. A set of seats retract from one end of the dome, then the football pitch is lid into the stadium. The lower bowl is then rotated 90 degrees and the conversion is complete. In order to revert to baseball, this process is reversed. Watch the video below to check out the transformation!

While it is not the only stadium in the world which has a sliding pitch, it is the only indoor stadium with a sliding pitch.