Soccer-specific stadium

Encyclopedia : S : SO : SOC : Soccer-specific stadium

Columbus Crew Stadium opened in 1999 as the first of a growing number of North American stadiums built for soccer

Soccer-specific stadium (SSS) is a term used mainly in the United States and Canada. It was coined by Lamar Hunt to refer to a sports stadium whose primary (but not only) purpose is to host soccer matches. An SSS may host other events such as other sporting events (e.g., Professional Lacrosse, high school football) or musical concerts but the design and purpose of an SSS is to be centered around soccer.

Still, these facilities often face criticism from fans in that they tend to be optimized for staging concerts, often resulting in one section of the stadium behind a goal having very few seats, if any. Instead, a berm or other feature is created where concert stages could be placed without destroying the main field.^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

An SSS typically has amenities, dimensions and scale suitable for soccer in the United States, including a scoreboard, video screen, luxury suites and possibly even a roof. The field dimensions are within the range found optimal by FIFA — 100-130 yards (90-120m) long by 50-100 yards (45-90m) wide (wider than the regulation American football field width of 53 1/3 yards). Lastly, the seating capacity is generally small enough to provide an intimate setting, between 18,000 - 30,000 for a Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise, or between 5,000 - ~15,000 for a franchise in the United Soccer Leagues (whose attendance is subject to more variation), as opposed to the gigantic American football stadiums in which most MLS teams were compelled to play at the league's inception. The seating capacity for USL Premier Development League fields ranges from 1,000-5,000.

The first large SSS in Canada will be the National Soccer Stadium in Toronto. The original Toronto stadium plan was centered on a ground at York University that would have been used by the Canadian Football League's Toronto Argonauts and an MLS team. That stadium would have been 65 yards wide in accordance with Canadian football standards and would have had one set of end zone seats mounted on a track so they could be moved back to make room for the 150 yard length of the Canadian football field and forth to provide an intimate setting for soccer. However, the York University plan was shelved. Plans for movable stands were then scrapped so the National Soccer Stadium at Exhibition Place will be soccer-only.

The term "football-specific stadium" is sometimes used in countries where the sport is known as football, although not so much so in countries where football is the dominant sport and thus football-specific stadia are quite common. The term tends to have a slightly different meaning in these countries, usually referring to a stadium without an athletic track.

List of Soccer Specific Stadiums

Current MLS Stadiums

Past Soccer-specific Stadiums

Proposed Soccer-specific Stadiums

Current USL Stadiums

Proposed Soccer-specific stadiums

Other Soccer-specific stadiums

See also

• Major League Soccer
• United Soccer Leagues

External links

• [BigSoccer, online community for fans - Stadium discussions]
• [World Stadiums]

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.