Comments on: Comments on 17544

Post number 17544

sikander — Sat, 01 Jun 2002 09:30:42 -0800

Check out this soccer/baseball stadium. You can fold the baseball field and roll in the soccer one. Animation here. Amazing.

By: Samizdata

Samizdata — Sat, 01 Jun 2002 10:01:14 -0800

Cool. An transformer stadium. "Form soccer stadium now! And I'll form the head!"

By: rhyax

rhyax — Sat, 01 Jun 2002 10:05:55 -0800

Sapporo Stadium! soccer mode attack! i love that the title of the site is joyful culmination :)

By: mmascolino

mmascolino — Sat, 01 Jun 2002 10:50:22 -0800

Slate is not not bullish on the new stadium.

By: kliuless

kliuless — Sat, 01 Jun 2002 10:53:10 -0800

wow, cool! i just got transformers the movie, so it reminds me of unicron (orson welles :) international stadium yokohama looks pretty :) (via yakitori!)

By: robbie01

robbie01 — Sat, 01 Jun 2002 11:10:49 -0800

I believe there's a one-pager on this stadium in the latest issue of Wired. Not that anyone reads Wired anymore.

By: yerfatma

yerfatma — Sat, 01 Jun 2002 12:44:00 -0800

Hey, I still read Wired-- I was trying to find an online version of the article, but no luck.

By: rhyax

rhyax — Sat, 01 Jun 2002 12:50:04 -0800

wow, $15,000 each time they switch modes! holy crap

By: kfury

kfury — Sat, 01 Jun 2002 13:13:16 -0800

This page has a link (javascript, bah) to a quicktime-lapse movie of the transition. Don't miss the bit about the ascending and descending pitcher's mound...

By: dhartung

dhartung — Sat, 01 Jun 2002 13:32:40 -0800

The Japanese seem to be a generation behind, no matter how slick the ultimate product -- dual sport stadiums are passé in the US and being steadily replaced with single-sport venues, very often with a retro look and even sometimes a smaller capacity. Seating for baseball tends to be too far from the sidelines for (American) football, and sightlines for the broad action of football put people too far and low to see the close plays of baseball.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Sat, 01 Jun 2002 13:57:47 -0800

An even better animation in Flash by the ever-inventive staff at El Pais. Be sure to click on the "continuar" button rather than the numbers, to see the interstitial animation. It's like a big, fun, billion-dollar toy.

By: crunchland

crunchland — Sat, 01 Jun 2002 14:07:08 -0800

So, from that flash animation, I gather that it's possible to play baseball on artificial turf, but soccer needs real grass? Since I'm not much of a sports fanatic, why would that be?

By: Kafkaesque

Kafkaesque — Sat, 01 Jun 2002 14:23:55 -0800

The potential for injury, among other things, crunch. Also, in american football, artificial turf doesn't affect the ball as it never touches the ground (except fumbles). Grass slows up the ball.

By: MAYORBOB

MAYORBOB — Sat, 01 Jun 2002 15:12:46 -0800

A friend who attended one of the games at the Dome, described it as a "soulless edifice". But he's an architect, so maybe he's biased.

By: benjh

benjh — Sat, 01 Jun 2002 15:26:05 -0800

Seems rather redundant. If you want a multipurpose stadium, why not just move the freaking lines instead of moving the entire field back and forth? Here in Cincinnati, we had a multi-sport stadium for years. Now we are being forced to pay for 2 new stadiums, one for the Cincinnati Reds, which isn't nearly as bad as the second which has already been built, for the Cincinnati Bengals. So now we've got our skyline littered with a collesieum, a ball park, a football stadium, and an multi-purpose park which will eventually be torn down. These taxpayer-funded nightmares, be they in Japan, Cincinnati, or elsewhere, should be stopped. It is an absolute joke that people who have no desire for sports, much less go to a sports game, are forced to pay for multi-million/billion dollar stadiums that will neither assist in the economy, or drag it down more. The taxpayers pay for these stadiums, but their ultimate public usage is questionable. Even though they are funded with pubic money forcibly extracted, they won't allow certain groups to utilize the facilities. Only groups acceptable to the team are allowable, which brings up whole other issues. The government funding of stadiums should be stopped here and now, and let the teams pay for their stadiums themselves. If they can't afford it, apparently they aren't pulling in enough people, and therefore do not deserve new stadiums.

By: MAYORBOB

MAYORBOB — Sat, 01 Jun 2002 15:30:31 -0800

Does anyone know how the Japanese managed to pay for this thing? I thought they had fallen upon hard financial times over there.

By: dagny

dagny — Sat, 01 Jun 2002 15:40:00 -0800

mayor: they bought into the "government spending will lead to prosperity" myth... soon, they'll smell the coffee (as the aforeamentioned slate article discusses)

By: gyc

gyc — Sat, 01 Jun 2002 15:43:30 -0800

It is possible with the new artificial turf technologies, which are much more grass-like, to play (relatively) high-level soccer on artificial grass. For example, the Chicago Fire is playing at North Central College in Naperville on SafePlay Plus synthetic grass while Soldier Stadium is being renovated.