Evergrande's new 100,000-seater stadium set for completion in 2022
Evergrande Group has begun work on what will be the world's largest purpose-built football stadium, with a capacity of 100,000 seats, in the southern city of Guangzhou, the Chinese real estate company has said.
Construction of the Guangzhou Evergrande Football Stadium, also dubbed "Lotus Flower Stadium" for its design, started on April 16 and would cost around 12 billion yuan (S$2.41b) to complete, the group said.
The new home of Chinese Super League side Guangzhou Evergrande will surpass Barcelona's Nou Camp as the largest purpose-built football venue by capacity, it added.
North Korea's multi-purpose Rungrado 1st of May Stadium would remain the largest sports stadium in the world with around 114,000 seats.
The lotus design was chosen as it is a traditional Chinese flower, the group said, adding that it was conceptualised by Hasan A. Syed, a Shanghai-based designer.
The stadium would also include entertainment, commercial and dining areas and is likely to be completed by the end of 2022.
The company said it was building the venue as China did not have enough professional, purpose-built football stadiums and that it hoped the facility would help boost the sport in the country.
China are 76th in the Fifa world rankings.
Evergrande said they also planned to build two more stadiums of around 80,000 seats each in China, adding that designs for those facilities were under review. - REUTERS
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