Taipei Arena
| Mini-Big Egg (小巨蛋) | |
 | |
| Location | Songshan, Taipei, Taiwan |
|---|---|
| Owner | Taipei City Government |
| Operator | Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation (Taipei Metro) |
| Capacity | Main Stadium - 15,085, Auxiliary Stadium - 800 |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 2005 |
| Architect | Populous |
| Tenants | |
| Chinese Taipei Ice Hockey League | |
The Taipei Arena (Chinese: 臺北巨蛋; pinyin: Táiběi Jùdàn) is an indoor sporting arena located in Songshan District, Taipei, Taiwan. Built in 2005, the large multi-purpose stadium that can accommodate major international sport events such as ice skating, ice hockey, gymnastics, handball, basketball, tennis, badminton, table tennis, indoor soccer, boxing, judo, karate, taekwondo and wrestling.
Building
It was designed by Archasia, an architectural firm established in Taipei (now Populous, a Kansas City, Missouri (USA) design architectural firm). It is located at the site of the former Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium (built in 1958, opened 1959, demolished 2000). The arena was opened on December 1, 2005. The main arena has an adjustable floor space: its minimum floor space is 60m × 30m, and can be extended to 80m × 40m.
The Chinese Taipei Ice Hockey League (CTIHL) plays out of the auxiliary arena, which is a 60m × 30m ice skating rink. The basement now houses two large gas turbine power generators to be used for the surrounding district during emergencies.[1]
Events
Since opening in 2005, the arena has held more art and cultural activities (such as live concerts) than sporting events, which it was originally designed and built for. These have included Disney on Ice and Cirque du Soleil, Cats the Broadway Musical.[2]
International Artists in the table below are highlighted in light blue.
| Year | Date | Nationality of Performers | Name of Performers | Name of Tours | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | November 18 | Taiwan | Show Luo | - | - |
| 2006 | July 29 | Singapore | Stefanie Sun | - | She is the 1st woman and Singaporean Singer to hold her concert at the venue. |
| December 16 | Taiwan | S.H.E. | Perfect 3 World Tour | - | |
| 2007 | March 24 | Hong Kong | Jacky Cheung | Snow Wolf Lake Tour | - |
| April 21 & 22 | Australia | Olivia Newton-John | Body Heart & Spirit Tour | 1st concert performed at the arena by an international artist. | |
| 2008 | March 2 | United States | Backstreet Boys | Unbreakable Tour | 1st American act to perform at the venue. |
| June 8 | Malaysia | Fish Leong | Today Is Our Valentine's Day | 1st Malaysian artist to perform at the arena. | |
| 2009 | May 15 & 16 | Singapore | Stefanie Sun | "The Answer Is......" World Tour | - |
| October 24 & 25 | Taiwan | Fahrenheit | Fantasy World Tour | The concert was filmed for their Fahrenheit's Fantasy World Tour Taipei Special DVD. | |
| December 31 | Taiwan | Elva Hsiao | - | - | |
| 2010 | February 20 & 21 | South Korea | Super Junior | Super Show 2 Tour | This was the 1st concert from a K-Pop artist at the venue. |
| February 25 | United States | Backstreet Boys | This Is Us Tour | ||
| March 27 | United States | Coco Lee | East To West World Tour | - | |
| April 24 | Taiwan | Rainie Yang | Whimsical World | This was the debut concert of her music career. | |
| May 15 | Taiwan | Show Luo | Dance Storm 舞法舞天 | He was the 1st artist who held 3 concerts in 24 hours.For this concert's theme, he was also the first artist with a 3D music video for his song "Dance Storm" (舞法舞天), which can be view in 3D by the naked eye. | |
| May 29 | Taiwan | S.H.E. | S.H.E Is The One World Tour | - | |
| June 11, 12, 13 | Taiwan | Jay Chou | The Era World Tour | - | |
| August 27 & 28 | Japan | KAT-TUN | No More Pain | The concert was filmed and recorded into a DVD that was released a few months later. | |
| October 16 & 17 | South Korea | Girls' Generation | Girls' Generation Asia Tour Into the New World | - | |
| December 18 | Taiwan | Crowd Lu | Good Morning & Good Evening | This was his 1st concert at the arena. The show started at 10:00, followed by a lunch break and a movie screening in the afternoon, and continued at 19:30. | |
| December 24, 25 & 26 | Taiwan | Jolin Tsai | Myself World Tour | - | |
| 2011 | January 14 & 15 | Hong Kong | Eason Chan | DUO Tour | - |
| January 21, 22 & 23 | Hong Kong | Faye Wong | - | - | |
| March 11, 12 & 13 | South Korea | Super Junior | Super Show 3 Tour | - | |
| April 3 | United States | Bob Dylan | Never Ending Tour 2011 | ||
| May 15 | Canada | Justin Bieber | My World Tour | ||
| May 28 & 29 | Malaysia | Fish Leong | "Love Library" World Tour | - | |
| July 16 | South Korea | SHINee | SHINee WORLD | - | |
| August 18, 19, 20 & 21 | Hong Kong | Jacky Cheung | 1/2 Century World Tour | He set a new record for a foreign artist to have 4 consecutive shows in Taipei Arena. | |
| September 9, 10 & 11 | South Korea | Girls' Generation | Girls' Generation Tour | - | |
| 2012 | February 2, 3, 4 & 5 | South Korea | Super Junior | Super Show 4 | They set a record for the fastest selling concert in Taiwan history and met 40,000 of their fans.[3] |
| October 20 & 21 | South Korea | Big Bang | Alive Tour | - | |
| 2013 | June 28, 29 & 30 | Canada United States |
Cirque du Soleil | Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour | - |
| July 20 & 21 | South Korea | Girls' Generation | Girls' Generation World Tour Girls & Peace | - | |
| August 10, 11 & 12 | South Korea | Super Junior | Super Show 5 | - | |
| August 17 | United States | Linkin Park | Living Things World Tour | - | |
| December 14 | United Kingdom | Sarah Brightman | Dreamchaser World Tour | - | |
| December 20 | Canada | Triumph | Our Home Ground | - | |
| 2014 | November 29 & 30 | South Korea | Super Junior | Super Show 6 Tour | |
| 2015 | April 28 | United States | Katy Perry | Prismatic World Tour | - |
| May 22, 23, 24 & 25 | Taiwan | Jolin Tsai | Play World Tour | - | |
| June 12 & 13 | South Korea | Exo | Exo Planet ＃2 - The Exo'luxion | - | |
| November 5, 6, 7 & 8 | Taiwan | Jolin Tsai | Play World Tour | - | |
| 2016 | January 16 | Japan | One Ok Rock | "35xxxv" Asia Tour [4] | - |
| February 4 & 6 | United States | Madonna | Rebel Heart Tour | - | |
| April 22 | South Korea | iKON | iKONCERT 2016: Showtime Tour | - | |
| May 7 & 8 | South Korea | Girls' Generation | Girls' Generation's Phantasia | - | |
| November 26 & 27 | South Korea | EXO | Exo Planet 3 – The Exo'rdium | - | |
Non-Entertainment Events:
- Inaugural ceremony and celebrations of President Ma Ying-Jeou and Vice-President Vincent Siew on 20 May 2008.
Dates Unknown:
- Jolin Tsai performed her 1st concert in the arena in November 2006 for her Dancing Forever World Tour.
- Japanese singer Ayumi Hamasaki's Asia Tour, which had more than 10,000 tickets sold out in 1 hour. That was the 1st concert at the venue to be performed by a J-Pop artist.
- Taiwanese Aborigine pop star Chang Hui-mei's STAR TOUR world tour.
- Irish-American dancer and musician Michael Flatley reprises his role as Lord of the Dance in the Feet of Flames 2009 tour.
- The Indiana Pacers vs Denver Nuggets game was the first (United States) National Basketball Association game held in the country back in 2009.
- Japanese singer Namie Amuro filmed her tour here for the DVD release of Best Fiction Tour 2008-2009, back in 2009.
- BIGBANG performed at the arena for the first time as part of their Big Bang Alive Galaxy Tour 2012 and brought in 26,000 audiences.
Transportation
Taipei Arena is accessible from Taipei Arena Station of the Taipei Metro.
References
- ↑ "Taipei Arena". Retrieved 15 February 2010.
- ↑ "又來了 小巨蛋沒有LED計分器" (in Chinese). China Times. 2007-03-14.
- ↑ "Super Junior Breaks Records with ‘Super Show 4’ in Taiwan" CJ E&M enews World. 2012-02-26
- ↑ http://english.arena.taipei/ct.asp?xItem=140670179&ctNode=63612&mp=12203B
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Taipei Arena. |
- Taipei Arena official website (English)
- CIHL official website (English) (Taiwanese Mandarin)
Coordinates: 25°03′02.55″N 121°33′0″E / 25.0507083°N 121.55000°E