Chelsea Football Club has today (31 May) announced that it has put its new stadium project on hold, blaming “the current unfavourable investment climate.” According to the London club, no further pre-construction design and planning work will occur on the Stamford Bridge project, designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron, and no timeframe has been set for it to reconsider its decision. The 60,000-seat stadium was granted planning permission in

French rugby legend Sébastien Chabal and French designer Philippe Starck have joined forces to create a range of urban sports equipment which promotes free and accessible sport to everyone. The initiative is part of the Heritage Plan 2024 – one of the legacy projects linked to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Called Station Sport Lib', the equipment aims to "make people embrace movement and encourage them to do sports freely

The architect behind Italian football club AS Roma’s planned new stadium has told CLADglobal that he is determined to deliver a facility that “creates an incredible atmosphere” and is respectful of Rome’s extraordinary architectural heritage. Dan Meis, founder of Meis Architects, has been involved for over five years in the development of a long-awaited new home for the Serie A team, which will replace the Stadio Olimpico, its home since

Construction is nearing completion on the only new stadium being built for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan. The 16,000-capacity Kamaishi Recovery Memorial Stadium in Iwate Prefecture will host two fixtures at next year’s tournament. It will first open on the 19 August 2018 for a memorial match between the Kamaishi Seawaves Rugby Football Club and Top League side Yamaha Jubilo, in honour of those who lost their lives

Plans to replace the historic Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh with a modern £47m sports centre will be discussed by the City of Edinburgh Council next month. Two planning applications have been filed for the stadium, which was built for the 1970 Commonwealth Games. One application proposes a new £47m sports centre to replace the original venue, while the other lays out plans for a mixed-use redevelopment of the wider site,

Spanish football giant FC Barcelona has reached a deal to open a number of Barça-themed “experience spaces” around the world. Club president Josep Maria Bartomeu has signed a five-year agreement with leisure park developer Parques Reunidos to get the ball rolling on the project, which will see indoor parks, between 3,000 and 10,000sq m in size, opened in “busy shopping malls and iconic establishments in the centres of cities with

French architecture studio SCAU have won the design competition to create an Olympic stadium and leisure park in the suburbs of Paris, with their vision for a venue extensively covered by plants. The practice will develop and expand the existing Hunebelle Stadium into a 24,000sq m (258,300sq ft) mixed-use ground with a connected bowling alley, gymnasium, athletics hall and parking that flow organically into one another, partially underground. Situated on

The Tokyo Organising Committee for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games (TOCOPG), has finalised its plans for the venues for the Games. In a statement, TOCOPG said it had added the "final pieces to the facility puzzle" by agreeing deals for the seven venues needed to host the Olympic football competition. The deal will see Sapporo Dome, Miyagi Stadium, Ibaraki Kashima Stadium, Saitama Stadium, Tokyo Stadium and the International Stadium

Stadium for Bath, the partnership behind a new community-focused elite rugby stadium in the city, has appointed planning and engineering giant Arup to play a central role in the design of the venue. Arup will provide civil, geotechnical, structural, mechanical, electrical and public health engineering as well as ICT, audiovisual, acoustic and specialist lighting design for the new 18,000 seat, digitally-enabled stadium. Arup’s team will be led from Bristol and

International design practice AFL Architects have been commissioned by the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) to lead the creation of Turkey’s bid dossier for the UEFA Euro 2024. As part of this role, the studio is examining the tournament readiness of seven existing stadia in the country, as well as planning the renovation of three further venues to ensure they meet international requirements and “can provide fans with world-class hospitality.” They

The new home of Hollywood Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise Los Angeles FC has officially opened in the city’s Exposition Park. Designed by architect Gensler, the 22,000 capacity Banc of California Stadium is the first new open-air stadium in LA since 1962 and has also been LEED silver certified for its sustainable design features. Ground was broken on the US$350m (€289m, £251.5m) project in August 2016 on a site once

International architecture practice von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp) have completed a conversion of Slaski Stadium in Chorzów, Poland, adding the largest translucent polycarbonate roof in Europe to the 50s-era landmark. The original building dates from 1956, and was design by architect Julian Brzuchowski and engineer Wiktor Pade. It was converted in the 1990s and served as a venue for music events, the Speedway motorcycle World Cup and as the

English Premier League football club Crystal Palace has been given the green light to build an “iconic” new Main Stand at its Selhurst Park home, after Croydon Council resolved to grant permission for the project designed to redevelop the stadium for the modern era. Sports architects KSS are overseeing the project, with their design vision first revealed in December last year. They are working with the club to increase the

New images of Tottenham Hotspur's forthcoming White Hart Lane stadium, currently under construction in north London, show the scale of the four huge display screens which will dominate the stadium's seating bowl. Supplied by AV specialist Daktronics, the four bespoke main LED video displays will total more than 1,000sq m in size. This includes two screens in the single tier, 17,500-capacity South Stand, each measuring 325sq m – making them

FC Barcelona’s ambitious plan to create a vibrant district dedicated to the club and its brand around a redeveloped Camp Nou stadium has been given the provisional green light by the city council. An agreement between the club and the city was reached yesterday (12 April) paving the way for a Modification to the General Metropolitan Plan (MPGM), which would allow the creation of Espai Barça, or ‘Barça Space’. The

Tennis star Maria Sharapova has joined forces with US sports architect Dan Meis to start a new design venture creating “inspirational” health, fitness, sporting and wellness facilities for the hospitality sector. Inspired, in part, by hotelier Ian Schrager’s boutique hotel revolution, the pair are already in talks to create branded experience-led training venues for hotels, resorts and sports clubs that will help budding and professional athletes reach their peak performance.

The University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) in the US has completed work on its new Event Center, designed as one of the most advanced college basketball facilities in the country. The all-in-one athletics venue is the new home of the UMBC Retrievers’ men’s and women’s basketball teams and women’s volleyball squad. Designed by architects CannonDesign to be flexible and multi-purpose in nature, the stadium bowl has a capacity of

French football club FC Nantes has revealed the first design sketches for its planned new 40,000-capacity home stadium in western France. US sports architects HKS and French practice Atelier Tom Sheehan & Partenaires (ATSP) have created the concept for the YelloPark Stadium, which includes a fixed roof with a retractable oculus. The traditional horizontally stratified organisation of a stadium will be reinvented to create “a tailor-made experience for each ticket

Work is set to begin on Australia's first surf park, after Urbnsurf – the company driving the plans – secured AU$28.3m (US$18, €15m, £13m) in funding to develop a site in the city of Melbourne. The firm has already secured planning consent for a site adjacent to Melbourne Airport and now expects construction work to begin during April 2018. Described as a "sports, leisure and entertainment facility", Urbnsurf Melbourne will

Populous are working on the largest esports arena in the US – a flexible 100,000sq ft (9,300sq m) venue in the City of Arlington, Virginia. The global sport and entertainment architecture firm are converting the Arlington Convention Center into the Esports Stadium Arlington – a facility designed to draw competitive players and fans from around the world. The City and investment firm Esports Ventures will together invest US$10m (€8m, £7m)

The architect behind Everton FC’s planned new stadium at Bramley Moore Dock in Liverpool has told CLADglobal that his design will “embrace the future of English football without totally forgetting the past” – avoiding the pitfalls that have befallen clubs such as West Ham when moving away from a much-loved home. Dan Meis, founder of Meis Architects, admitted he feels “a huge responsibility” at the task of creating a replacement

Brazilian design studio MMBB Arquitetos and legendary architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha have collaborated on the transformation of a disused tower block in central São Paulo into a vibrant leisure destination for the city. Created for Brazilian non-profit SESC, the 14-storey building, situated on Rua 24 de Maio and Rua Dom José de Barro, has been stripped of several unnecessary elements – including a bankrupt department store at its heart

English football club Fulham FC has announced that its plans to redevelop the Riverside Stand at its Craven Cottage stadium have been approved following a planning hearing at London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Construction work on the new stand, which will raise the overall capacity of Craven Cottage to around 30,000, is set to commence by the summer of 2019. Sports architects Populous are behind the design, which club

Architecture firm FaulknerBrowns have completed a dynamic €50m (US$61m, £44.4m) sports campus in The Hague’s historic Zuiderpark. Open to amateur and elite athletes and community users, the 34,000sq m (366,000sq ft) facility includes a gymnastics hall, beach sports venue, 3,500 capacity arena and a multi-purpose sports hall, as well as a variety of sports science and education spaces, including a public library. Outside, there are a series of multi-use pitches,

The Athens Olympic Park could get a new lease of life, if plans by Greek businessman Dimitris Giannakopoulos are given the green light. Giannokopoulos, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur who currently owns the Panathinaikos basketball club, has tabled a bid to buy the Panathinaikos football club – which is currently owned by Panathinaiki Alliance, a fan group which took over the club in 2012. What makes the deal significant is that, according

English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur has revealed new images of its forthcoming home at White Hart Lane, which it has billed as “the most unique sports and entertainment destination in Europe”. In a move to promote its launch of season ticket sales, of which 42,000 are available, the club has today (12 March) released visualisations of the stadium’s seating bowl, walkways and hospitality facilities. The renderings give a glimpse

Cricket Ireland has confirmed plans to develop a new national cricket stadium west Dublin, just months after the country secured Test status on the international stage. The national governing body has chosen Dublin’s National Sports Campus as the location for the venue. The move is part of a strategy to meet the requirements of future international and domestic first-class cricket in Ireland. Ireland was given full membership of the International