TAIPEI, Taiwan | On the 18th of November, 2023, close to 13,000 fans poured into the long-anticipated, the largest and the first indoor baseball stadium in Taiwan on a Saturday afternoon to be a part of the history to witness the first baseball game open to the public played in the Taipei Dome.
The First Home Run
During the test event held by Farglory Group and executed by the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association, the Chinese Taipei reserve teams from the Asian Baseball Championship 2023 and the WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup 2024 played a 9-inning regulation game in which the Asian Baseball Championship team defeated the WBSC U-23 reserves, 6-3.
Arizona Diamondback’s minor leaguer Sheng-Ping Chen from the Asian Baseball Championship Chinese Taipei team became the first player to ever hit a home run in the Taipei Dome with his three-run home run in the sixth for his team to take the lead.
The proposal of building an indoor baseball stadium started when more than 13,000 fans in the now-demolished Taipei Municipal Stadium shouted: “We want a dome! We want a dome!!” in the pouring rain in game seven of the CPBL Championship Series in 1991. The plans to build the dome took some time due to various issues before the ground was finally broken in April 2012, more than two decades on from that rainy championship game.
Three years after the ground-breaking, the construction was halted by the order from the Taipei City Government, citing violations of differences between the construction documents and actual-built structures. The stoppage of the construction lasted for five years before the ban was lifted in August 2020. In addition to missed events such as the WBSC Premier12 2019, World Baseball Classic 2017 among other notable sporting events, many events and functions of Taipei Summer Universiade 2017 were forced to change venues to other facilities as well.
The Dome received its operating license in October 2023, and one closed-door test event and one open-door test event were scheduled in November.
Taipei Dome by Numbers
- Broke Ground: 2012
- Completion: 2023
- Seating Capacity: 40,071 (baseball), 58,000 (concert)
- Banquet Tables: 700
- Temperature: 24 degrees Celsius
- Wind speed: < 1m/sec
- Lighting: 456 fixtures
- Speakers: 33 Arrays speakers and 45 single-point speakers
- Home Run fence: 400 feet or 122m (centre), 335 feet or 102m (left and right foul lines)
- Ceiling height above playing field: 74.5m
- Suites: 36 (20 infield, 16 outfield)
- Broadcasting booths: 5 (1 large, 4 small)
- Camera positions: 13 (10 fixed, 3 crane positions)
- Parking spaces: 2,136 sedans, 3,800 motorcycles/scooters, 60 buses, 60 large vehicles, 56 loading vehicles, 10 SNG (street level)
Design and Construction
Taipei Dome is designed by the world-famous sports facility design firm Populous, while the construction works were carried out by the collaboration of Farglory Construction and Obayashigumi, the top indoor stadium builder from Japan. The complex consists of the dome, a shopping center, cinemas, office building and a high-end hotel.
The 40,000-seat stadium is now the largest indoor venue in Taiwan, with the capability of hosting baseball games, other sporting fixtures, concerts, exhibits and other events. It has 36 luxury suites throughout the venue, five broadcasting booths, and is the first baseball stadium in Taiwan to designate separate male and female umpires’ lockers and lounges.
The Taipei Dome, a fixed-roof venue, uses MS Craft Baseball Turf from Mizuno with the latest technology in manufacturing the turf.
For the test event, the Taipei Dome invited a maximum of 13,000 fans into the stadium to fill the grandstand. According to the Taipei City Government, it is expected to welcome up to 20,000 fans during the upcoming XXX BFA Asian Baseball Championship. “It took only fifteen minutes for all 13,000 spectators to orderly leave the premises after the game, (it is) a lot better than we expected,” said Shu-Chuan Lee, the Deputy Mayor of Taipei City Government.
The XXX BFA Asian Baseball Championship will open on December 3rd, 2023 and become the official grand opening game of the Taipei Dome.
