Site work has begun on a $1.7bn football stadium for Guangzhou Evergrande, a team in China’s Super League. When completed, by the end of 2022, the 100,000-capacity ground will be the largest football stadium in the world. Â
A ceremony to begin the work was held at the end of last week, and the club has released a video to show how the stadium will look when finished.
The design for the ground was chosen from among eight submitted from architects in Australia, China, the UK and the US before Evergrande made the decision to go with the entry from Shanghai-based US designer Hasan Syed.
His entry was based on the lotus flower, a nod to Guangzhou’s status as the “Flower City”.
Xia Haijun, president of real estate company Evergrande, commented: “The Evergrande Stadium will become a world-class landmark comparable to the Sydney Opera House and Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and an important symbol of Chinese football to the world.”
Guangzhou Evergrande are one of the biggest teams in Asia. Since being taken over by Evergrande in 2010, the team has won eight Chinese Super League titles and two Asian Champions Leagues. The club presently plays its home games at the city-owned Tianhe Stadium, with a capacity of 58,500.
Evergrande has announced plans to construct at least two more stadiums elsewhere in the country with capacities of at least 80,000.
The largest football ground in the world is presently the 99,354-seater Camp Nou in Barcelona.
Image: A still from Guangzhou Evergrande’s video, released to introduce the stadium
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