"It's like creating a contemporary cathedral in some ways [...]"

"Often the stadium is meant to become the pride of a city, a landmark object, and as such, a monument representing the latest achievements in architecture."

Since ancient Greeks built the first Olympic stadium in fine white marble, the arena has been as much about inspiring awe, as staging competition.

Today's architects must go even further. — cnn.com

“They don’t want a foreigner to build in Tokyo for a national stadium. On the other hand, they all have work abroad. Whether it’s Sejima, Toyo Ito, or Maki or Isozaki or Kengo Kuma.”

Last month Isozaki, 83, wrote an open letter to the Japan Sports Council, the government body in charge of plans for the 2020 Games, in which he attacked the “distorted” process that has led to “a dull, slow form”. — theguardian.com

In a young city predisposed to wrecking and rebuilding, impressive works of architecture can sometimes be discarded as effortlessly as last year’s runway accessories.

But Miami Marine Stadium, a bold structure on Biscayne Bay that sought to jolt the city into the future back in 1963, may prove a rare, stubborn exception. Abandoned and shuttered more than two decades ago, the Modernist stadium is in the midst of a turbulent, nearly seven-year effort by a nonprofit group [...]. — nytimes.com

Recent Harvard Graduate School of Design graduate Yaohua Wang finished his M.Arch program on a high note by winning the 2014 James Templeton Kelley Prize for Best M.Arch II Thesis for his project, "Salvaged Stadium". Although Wang doesn't win an award every single time for his projects, his intricate ideas have spurred some debate in the past. — bustler.net

It was supposed to represent a dynamic future vision for Tokyo, flaring up out of the city’s Meiji Jingu park in sinuous white arcs. But Zaha Hadid’s design for the 2020 Olympic stadium [...] now facing its fiercest public attack yet. [...]

In a lengthy open letter to the Japan Sports Council [...] Isozaki rails against the “distorted” process that has led to “a dull, slow form, like a turtle waiting for Japan to sink so that it can swim away”. — theguardian.com

It's been a long time since the Houston Oilers or any other team called the Astrodome home, and voters rejected a bond measure to adapt and reuse this domed cathedral last year. But Emmett's not giving it up. Yesterday, he led the press on a tour of the Astrodome to introduce his own plan to restore it: By creating the world's largest indoor park.

This isn't the first scheme mounted by preservationists who see a future for the dome. — citylab.com

Moscow wants to make Russia the "center of the sporting world," but the price tag will be steep. Four years before the 2018 World Cup, costs are exploding in the next host country, with the two most important stadiums each costing more than a billion euros. — spiegel.de

Zaha Hadid Architects has admitted it has made changes to its design for the stadium that will be the centrepiece of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

The firm has faced hostility in Japan with critics complaining that the proposed 80,000-seat stadium is too big, too costly and clashes with Tokyo’s urban planning.

At the weekend, 500 protestors marched around the existing National Stadium to demonstrate over plans to replace it with Hadid’s proposal [...]. — bdonline.co.uk

Over the next few years, two professional sports teams are in a position to radically reshape much of the fringe of Atlanta's downtown core. [...]

Neither stadium deal has been the public relations coup that Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed surely hoped for. [...]

There's an inherent messiness to these dual, competing narratives – one of downtown reinvestment, the other a triumph of the suburbs. — theatlanticcities.com

[...] I saw a Populous stadium in Hong Kong I liked once with these two big arches. And it opened from end zone to end zone.

And so we started to go off of that particular path, opened up the ends of the building so that you could see the sea and the mountains. [...] And it developed then into what you now see as the stadium that is right there for the games. — hereandnow.wbur.org

Fisht reproduces Cowboys signature pair of arched trusses, and shares its bulbous, hump-back shape — albeit with a wave-like articulated roof of polycarbonate. What it appears not to share, at least from the images available online, is the sensitive way Cowboys Stadium hits the ground, slanting in to minimize its bulk. Fisht is a lot more ham-fisted, flaring out and surrounded by all manner of circulatory junk. — artsblog.dallasnews.com

Olympic stadiums are nothing new for Populous, the global practice known for designing some of the world's iconic sports venues. With the Sochi Winter Olympics a few days away, we'll give a little headstart with a glimpse into Fisht Olympic Stadium -- which Populous was selected to design in 2009 -- before it makes its debut at the Opening Ceremony. — bustler.net

Less than five months before Brazil's World Cup kicks off, 6 out of 12 venues are still unfinished -- including a complex in the northern city of Manaus, where construction workers have died and pay for laborers is an issue. Fifa has warned Brazil's World Cup 2014 host city of Curitiba that it could be excluded unless work speeds up. — marketplace.org

Ready, Set, Hike! A Trial Trek to MetLife Stadium

The officials planning Super Bowl XLVIII want it to be the Super Bowl of public transportation. They are not just discouraging fans from walking to MetLife Stadium on game day in February — they are forbidding it. — The New York Times

Brazil's World Cup preparations suffered a deadly setback on Wednesday when a roof collapsed killing at least two building workers at the São Paulo stadium that is due to host the opening match.

Coming a week before the draw for next year's tournament, the fatalities revive concerns about unsafe infrastructure and the slow pace of construction, which have dogged the hosts for more than a year. — theguardian.com