World’s largest cricket stadium opens
Following three years in construction, the
Motera Cricket Stadium in Ahmedabad,
India, has opened its doors where it will
serve as the world’s largest cricket venue
with a capacity for over 110,000 fans.
Surpassing preceding record holder
Melbourne Cricket Ground’s 100,000 seats,
the stadium is double the capacity of the old
Motera Stadium and built on the same 63-
acre site. It took two years alone to demolish
the old venue and construction then took a
further three years.
Designed by architects Populous, the
360-degree stadium has been deliberately
made to be round and open to provide
uninterrupted sightlines onto the pitch. The
bowl design consists of two large seating
tiers, each with approximately 50,000
general admission seats.
The new home of the Gujarat Cricket
Association, it includes 76 corporate boxes,
four team dressing rooms, state-of-the-art
club facilities with three practice grounds,
an indoor cricket academy, and a 55-room
clubhouse which will have an Olympic-size
swimming pool.
Walter P Moore served as the structural
engineer for Motera’s roof system. Taking
into consideration the fact that the city
of Ahmedabad is located in a level three
seismic zone, the roof needed to be
lightweight to reduce seismic demand
and develop an economical roof system.
Walter P Moore proposed a tensile fabric
roof system that is seismically separate from
the concrete seating bowl and supported
by steel V-shaped columns. These columns
resist gravity and lateral loads resulting from
high winds and earthquakes.
PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene), Tefloncoated
woven fiberglass, was stretched
between a circumferential inner tension
ring and an outer compression ring. A wind
tunnel test was also performed to optimize
roof design. Walter P Moore used Load
Response Correlation Method to develop
critical wind load patterns from the wind
tunnel test. The Motera Stadium exists in
tiers to accommodate smaller events and
maintain the atmosphere for spectators
even when the bowl isn’t full. These tiers
carry through to the roof, making the fact
that it is structurally independent a crucial
design element.
Motera Cricket
Stadium has a
capacity for over
110,000 fans
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