Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium

Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium (Chinese: 臺中市洲際棒球場) is a stadium in Beitun District, Taichung, Taiwan. The stadium officially opened on November 9, 2006 replacing the antiquated Taichung Baseball Field. Located on the corner of Chongde Road (崇德路) and Huanzhong Road (環中路), it has considerably more parking available than the old stadium, which will be much more convenient for fans.

Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium
AddressNo. 835, Section 3, Chongde Road, Beitun District, Taichung City, Taiwan 406
LocationTaichung City, Taiwan
Coordinates24°11′59″N 120°41′06″E
OwnerTaichung City Government
OperatorCTBC Bank
Capacity20,000
Field sizeLeft Field – 99.1 metres (325 ft)
Left-Center – 115.5 metres (379 ft)
Center Field – 121.9 metres (400 ft)
Right-Center – 115.5 metres (379 ft)
Right Field – 99.1 metres (325 ft)
SurfaceGrass
Construction
Broke groundFebruary 1, 2005 (2005-02-01)
OpenedNovember 9, 2006 (2006-11-09)
Construction cost1 billion NTD
(about USD$33 million)
Tenants
Chinatrust Brothers
Taichung City Taiwan Life Insurance Baseball Team

The stadium is a venue for rock concerts and also hosted Zhang Yimou's Turandot at the Bird's Nest in 2010.[1]

Construction

Construction on the stadium began in 2005 and is operating on the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model that is becoming increasingly common among public works projects in Taiwan. The first phase includes 15,000 infield seats, all with seatback chairs. After the second phase was completed in 2008, seating capacity was expanded to 20,000 by adding 5,000 outfield seats.[2]

Major events

The first major event hosted by the new stadium was the 2006 Intercontinental Cup, a baseball competition between eight nations from four different continents. South Korea defeated the Philippines in the opener 10–0, followed by Chinese Taipei's defeat against Italy 3–13 on November 9.

On the final day of the 2006 Intercontinental Cup it was announced that the 2007 Baseball World Cup will be held in Taichung, with this stadium one of the two to be used for the tournament. The stadium also hosted some games at the 2007 Asian Baseball Championship, which counted as the 2008 Summer Olympics qualifier for the Asia region.

The stadium hosted the Pool B in the first round of the 2013 World Baseball Classic.

The ballpark has hosted a number of games of the Asia Winter Baseball League, most recently in November/December of 2018

World Baseball City

Due to the success of 2006 Intercontinental Cup, Taichung City Government and Chinese Taipei Baseball Association start striving to hold various of international events in following years. The stadium had hosted 10 International Baseball Federation (IBAF) events in first 10 years since the stadium had established.

IBAF awarded the World Baseball City medal during the opening ceremony of 2013 18U Baseball World Cup in order to appreciate the contribution that Taichung City Government had done. Taichung City became the first city to be awarded by IBAF. The World Baseball City stele was also erected at the stadium entrance.

Name confusion

From the beginning of this project, the stadium had been known as the Taichung International Standard Baseball Stadium. However, newspaper reports had referred to it as the Taichung International Baseball Stadium, (dropping the word "Standard".) A Chinese language schedule for the 2006 Intercontinental Cup had identified the stadium as the Taichung Intercontinental Stadium.

According to a report in 2006, the mayor of Taichung, Jason Hu, announced that the name of the stadium has been officially designated as Intercontinental Baseball Stadium. This is in honor of the event being the first to be held at the stadium.

Miscellaneous

Stadium firsts
First pitch in a competitive game at the stadium in a game between the Philippines and South Korea in the 2006 Intercontinental Cup

Stadium records

Notes
  1. ^ "XVI Intercontinental Cup" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-11-07. Retrieved 2006-10-17.
  2. ^ "臺中市國際標準棒球場 (Taichung International Standard Baseball Stadium)". Archived from the original on 2005-05-29. Retrieved 2006-10-23.
  3. ^ "棒協關切台中國際棒球場興建進度". Archived from the original on 2006-06-30. Retrieved 2006-10-23.
  4. ^ "台中新棒球場啟用 更名為洲際棒球場 (Taichung's new baseball stadium will change name to Intercontinental Baseball Stadium)". October 20, 2006. Archived from the original on 2006-11-08. Retrieved 2006-10-25.
  5. ^ "Italy v. Australia".
  6. ^ "Netherlands v. Korea".
  7. ^ "Italy v. Chinese Taipei".
  8. ^ "Korea v. Chinese Taipei".
  9. ^ "Philippines v. Australia".
  10. ^ "Korea v. Australia".
  11. ^ "Cuba v. the Netherlands".

See also

References
  1. 张艺谋版《图兰朵》台湾上演_中国台湾网 2010年12月17日 "大型景观歌剧《图兰朵》在台中市洲际棒球场上演。 当晚，张艺谋以总导演 身份观看了演出。此次赴台演出的制作团队仍为“鸟巢版”《图兰朵》
  2. "台中市洲際棒球場簡介(Introduction of Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium)" (in Chinese). Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium. May 5, 2010.
  3. Italy v. Chinese Taipei
  4. Canberra Cavalry wins Asia Series, David Polkinghorne, Canberra Times, 21 November 2013

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