Do cities need huge domed stadiums? When was the first Big Egg hatched? Where did they originate? Which such stadiums in the world are most well-known? Should Taipei have a domed facility?
Amidst the sound of song and the waving of banners, the inauguration of the first-ever popularly elected president in the 5,000-year history of the Chinese people proceeded at the Taoyuan "Big Egg" stadium. Under the media spotlight, overnight the Taoyuan stadium was bathed in glory.
The domed stadium concept originated in the West. But it was the Japanese who made the name "Big Egg" famous. The Tokyo Dome is commonly called by this moniker, and "Big Egg" has become the commonly used term among Taiwanese for a domed stadium.
The word "dome" conjures up an image of something large, tall, and able to hold huge crowds. One of the earliest domes of great scale was Rome's Pantheon (built about 130 CE), which had a span of 43 meters. This was widely considered to be the largest domed structure in the world prior to the 19th century.
A dome is a long-term structure, but the idea for it in an athletic arena may be traceable to a sudden bright idea. It is said that a noble of ancient Rome watching an event in the Colisseum, the father of all modern stadiums, ordered his slaves to raise something akin to a rain tent over him to keep out the elements. The result was an egg-shaped structure. This idea was adapted by an American architect, and thus was the design for the domed stadium born.
An "A" grade for the Taoyuan stadium
As for the site of the inauguration celebration, its proper name is the "Gymnasium of Taoyuan County." But after all the attention it got, the term "Big Egg" is now a more familiar moniker for it. In theory, a covered stadium should be enormous, and the Taoyuan site holds only 20,000. So in reality it is only a "mini-Big Egg."
Anyone holding an outdoor activity in rainy northern Taiwan has to depend on fate to make any money. So the main reason for choosing Taoyuan for the inauguration was the venue's special feature: The transparent "sky tent" that can keep out the elements while allowing natural sunlight in, thus insuring that the event would not be rained out or blown off course. Before the inaugural celebration, President Lee went on a pre-event inspection trip to the stadium, and gave it high marks.
The stadium, built in 1993 for the Taiwan Area Athletic Meet, uses what is known as "large span construction." There are no pillars in the entire structure. It uses structural calculations and precast structural elements. "It aims for the largest possible space at the base of the structure," explains Chen Hsin-chang, a professor of architecture at Tamkang University and the chief designer of the structure.
Despite its many special features, the Big Egg was battered by ridicule at first. In interpellations, one elected representative accused the Taoyuan County chief executive, Liu Pang-you, of being a liar for saying that Taoyuan's stadium was Taiwan's first domed stadium. The representative claimed that Liu was misleading the public because "the Taoyuan stadium is by no means an 'egg.' A true domed stadium is an air-supported structure [with air pressure inside exceeding that outside], and should hold 40-50,000 people." He concluded that the Taoyuan stadium is "at most an egg shell."
Countless elected officials criticized the facility. Looking at the segmented roof, some people said it looked more like a turtle shell than an egg. Others said it was simply an "umbrella." And then there were those who accused Liu Pang-you of being an "ostrich" with his head in the sand for refusing to concede that he was wrong, and they said the stadium should be called "the ostrich egg." In short, many people refused to accept that this "first athletic venue of its type in Taiwan" is truly a domed stadium.
Used to the fullest?
In fact, regardless of whether or not the Taoyuan stadium is "Taiwan's first domed stadium," there has always been doubt that it is being properly utilized.
It was built for the Taiwan Area Athletic Meet, and was initially designed as a hall for ping-pong, which could also be used for badminton and basketball. But many people from the sports community were amazed at such a huge space just for table tennis. "Forget about just table tennis, even if you had the two other sports going on at the same time it would be hard to fill up 20,000 seats," says Kwan Wen-yen, secretary of the Taipei Municipal Stadium. On the other hand, it has been filled for events like New Year's meetings, the Community Mother's Choir, Governor James Soong's celebration to thank his supporters, and numerous political and religious events.
In fact, if it were just for sporting events, the Taoyuan site would have further drawbacks. Take table tennis for example. The naked eye can only see so far, and it would be no easy feat to clearly observe the action from such a distance. Also, because the roof refracts light, it affects the vision of the athletes to some extent. Some athletes complained about this during the 1993 games.
Because of its scale, the design of the overall structure posed some unanticipated problems. For example, the material chosen for the roof was teflon-coated fabric, which is very thin, and, put bluntly, it is no more than a rain cover. When it rains the drops hit the cover with a loud "plop," creating a terrible disturbance. There is also a severe echo effect. Wu Po-hsiung, secretary-general of the presidential office, says that he finds making public addresses in the building to be exhausting, and he is unable even to make the most of the asset in which he is most confident--his singing voice.
Chen Hsin-chang, the original designer, does not deny that the stadium has "acoustic disturbances." However, he says, this is due to the failure to utilize sound-absorbing barriers, which were not used because of cost and because everything in the stadium was required to be fireproof. Thus for the inauguration event, the Taoyuan County government spent NT$20 million on improving the acoustics.
Also, as far as the local residents are concerned, the area around the stadium includes several interesting structures, such as the old Japanese-era Taoyuan school of agriculture and industry, the Lukuang 2 military dependents' community (dating back to just after WWII), Army Hospital 804, the Martyrs Monument, and a number of traditional heyuan family compounds with inclined roof buildings with gray tiles and white walls. The 2.5-hectare, very tall structure that is the Taoyuan stadium doesn't really fit into that environment.
In addition, the problem of peripheral facilities needed for a stadium--roads, parking lots, and so on--must be carefully considered. In Taoyuan, due to scheduling and budgetary problems, there is not adequate parking space. So when there are big events, the surrounding community and environment are inevitably disrupted to some extent. For the presidential inauguration, two nearby schools had to cancel classes for the day so their grounds could be used for parking cars.
Brought on by baseball
The Taoyuan County Government built the facility for reasons connected to the recent clamor for an enclosed stadium in Taiwan. This clamor in turn is connected to the success of professional baseball on the island.
The Houston Astrodome, built in 1965, was the world's first domed stadium. The main function for which the stadium was built was baseball. With a capacity of 50,000, the Dome was hailed as "The Eighth Wonder of the World" when it opened in April of that year. Because it marked a major breakthrough in terms of construction materials and structural mechanics, it was a major success in terms of construction techniques.
From the 1970s up to now, more than 10 domed stadiums have been built in the US. Both past and present, certain background conditions have existed allowing the development of such enormous stadiums. Kwan Wen-yen points out that the first is climate. In many locations, at certain times of the year, it could easily snow or rain on an event, leaving tens of thousands of rabid fans disappointed. Thus there is often mass support for the construction of indoor facilities.
The second factor is the success of professional sports. Most large cities have professional baseball in the spring and summer and professional football in the autumn and winter, and these are important recreational activities for residents. Pro baseball already has a history of more than 100 years behind it, and football has been around since early in this century. During the season, crowds of people who work nine-to-five collect their friends and families together and drive to the stadium. There they sit on comfortable seats, sipping drinks, and screaming their lungs out for their favorite teams. The game over, they return home, satisfied and with their daily frustrations released. Over time, this kind of activity has become a normal part of the American way of life.
A high price to pay
It is necessary for a domed stadium to meet the requirements for baseball, such as a distance of 120 meters or more from home plate to the center field home run fence. Thus a Big Egg stadium must be at least 210 meters long, and it must be either round or oval; it must be at least 60 meters high, so that fly balls do not hit the roof. In such a large structure, even a haphazard arrangement of seats would allow for "at least 40,000 people," says Philip T.C. Fei, a principal at Fei and Cheng Associates. Indoor stadiums in the US can hold from 40-80,000; the largest stadium to date is the Silverdome in Detroit, which has a capacity of 80,000.
With such an enormous space, the most direct impact is that the air quality control, electricity, water, and maintenance fees are all astronomical. Taking the Tokyo Dome for example, it requires 300 personnel and NT$4 million per day just to keep it operating.
In part because of their sheer size, in part because they require costly building materials for the roof, Big Egg venues are extremely expensive. Excluding the cost of the land, and counting only construction fees, the Tokyo Dome carried a price tag of about NT$17 billion (at the exchange rate of eight years ago). Thus, in terms of planning and design, no one has not first considered how to recover their investment before building a huge stadium.
A well-designed domed facility should be highly flexible, with adjustable activity size, space, lighting, and sound. Also, to attract spectators, it must provide "full service," including private boxes, food and beverage services, concessions to sell memorabilia, and so on. And to meet the needs of the press at major events, there must be TV broadcast facilities, a press box, darkroom, and phone and fax equipment. Most importantly, to insure that a minimum number of spectators come, virtually all major stadiums have contracts with professional sports teams.
The US is a capitalist country, and professional sports is tied to many commercial structures. Localities hope to attract or retain professional sports teams with the promise of a new stadium. This raises their national profile, is profitable to local construction, and businesses profit from the customers attracted by the stadium. State or municipal governments or commercial enterprises thus work together to give birth to a Big Egg.
Looking back over the history of domed venues, one sees that these were originally a product of the American lifestyle. Everything that provides the foundation for building a major stadium, from the sports format to the socio-economic environment, is American. How can these be made to fit Taiwan's needs?
"We want a Big Egg!"
Looking back, the Big Egg scramble in Taiwan began back in 1990. That was also the first year of professional baseball in Taiwan.
In March of that year the first domed stadium in Asia--Tokyo's 56,000-seat stadium--was completed. The local sports community, and especially baseball fans, compared it to the baseball parks in Taiwan--aging, decrepit, and exposed to the elements--and began to dream of their own domed facility.
When competitive baseball first began, President Lee came out to the park. Fans there began chanting "We want a Big Egg!" President Lee made a policy decision to appropriate money for stadiums in northern, central, and southern Taiwan. Central and southern Taiwan have always had plans to build a large stadium, and the construction plan for a 25,000-seat facility in Kaohsiung has already been sent to the legislature for deliberation.
Land costs for a stadium are lower in central and southern Taiwan, but funding has always been a problem. For construction of a domed stadium in Taipei, the first problem is its transportation facilities and surrounding facilities. Because of these considerations, the proposed site has already been changed twice.
The current location of the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium is still one of the sites under consideration. But because traffic is a more thorny problem in that part of the city, the site currently most favored by the city government is in the vicinity of the Sungshan tobacco factory in Nankang, a suburban area of northeast Taipei. This is further from the city center, a highway already goes by there, and a mass transit system station will soon be completed there. The city government argues that these will be of some help in moving large numbers of people.
The plan for the stadium draws on experience in North America and Japan, for both the interior and the surroundings. The facility will include a surrounding commercial district with recreational functions. "When the main event is over, people might not want to go straight home, so they can come to this district to have some fun," says Tai Chang- huang, secretary to vice mayor Chen Shih-meng (who chairs the committee that is propelling the Big Egg forward). Tai also argues that this would ease traffic pressures.
Because the Sungshan tobacco factory is on land belonging to the Taiwan Provincial Government, the Taipei Municipal Government is currently discussing the matter with the TPG. Mayor Chen Shui-bian hopes that the site for the stadium can be decided before his term expires in 1998. And what about future construction and operations? Aside from saying "these will very possibly be left to the private sector," Tai admits that while the land problem has not been settled, these other issues are too remote to think about.
Where are the activities?
It is already official policy that Taipei will build a Big Egg. According to Tai, if the Nankang site is used, the stadium could hold 40,000. Taiwan's construction industry is not lacking in experience building large venues. What many people worry most about it is this: After the once-in-a-year Taiwan Area Athletic Meet (which is held in each city and county in rotation) goes by, will the only thing left be a "mosquito breeding ground" unused by anyone? Or will it, like the Taoyuan stadium, be a case of "excessive size"?
Chen Hung-yen, chairman of the Department of Physical Education at Fujen Catholic University, says that such a stadium would be a construction project comparable to the mass transit system, so more consideration is required before any decision should be made. "Right now the largest crowd to watch professional baseball is about 10,000 people. First tell us how many activities Taipei has per year that will bring together 30-40,000 people," he challenges. At least the situation should be something like that in Toronto--when work began on its domed stadium, the first three years of activities had already been booked.
Tai Chang-huang says that city residents need not worry, that the government is on top of these matters. As for future activities, because Taiwan is the capital, and the metropolitan area has a population of six million, Taipei will have the capability to have events of 40-50,000 people, whether these be rock concerts or meetings of international groups like the Rotary Club. The problem is that there is no venue for them. Noting that at least one large international organization has already inquired about the facility, he says, "If the Big Egg is built, they will hold their annual meeting in Taipei."
Big egg, big chicken?
Kwan Wen-yen looks at it from the point of view of economic growth. Looking at the current standards of mass sporting events, he says that management of medium-sized 8,000-seat facilities is still inadequate. If the domed stadium is built, it would be OK if it were turned over to the private sector, but if it were managed by the government, based on the current structure, it would be difficult to do the job well.
In addition to a large facility, say people in the athletic community, Taiwan also needs some medium sized sports venues (holding 3,000 people or so), because these are the places that are most suitable for community activities. "If the Big Egg is simply another recreational site for Taipei residents, that's great. But if is built to the exclusion of other things, that would be tragic," says folk music scholar Lin Ku-fang.
"Laying an egg is easy, keeping it from being broken is hard," says Kwan Wen-yen. If the only thing needed for a domed stadium were money, there would be no difficulty about it; but much more is necessary. If it is to be well-managed and maintained, that's no easy matter. If long-term planning is not well thought-out, "the Big Egg dream could become a nightmare," he says.
According to the plan of the Taipei municipal government, the stadium will become one of the major projects of the city after the mass transit system is done. But it's going to take a pretty big chicken to get this egg out.
There are now ten domed stadiums in the US, making it the nation that leads the world in "Big Egg" production. The photo shows Minnesota's Metropolitan Stadium, which can hold 65,000. （photo by Li Chuo）
One of the main reasons for building domed stadiums is for professional baseball; this is also true in Taiwan.
Large concerts are often interrupted by rain, leaving the crowd disappoi nted. A domed stadium could avoid such problems.
The tree-shaded site of the Sungshan tobacco factory is one of the possi ble sites of the Taipei indoor stadium.
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