Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium
Location	187 Chien-Kang Road 1st Section, Tainan, Taiwan
Broke ground	Japanese Administration Era
Opened	Japanese Administration Era
Owner	Tainan City Government
Operator	Uni-President Lions
Surface	Grass
Tenants
Uni-President Lions (CPBL) (1999-present)
Seats
14,500 (1995) 12,500 (2005)
Dimensions
Left Field Line - 339 ft (103.3 m) Center Field - 400 ft (121,92m) Right Field Line - 339 ft (103.3 m)

Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium(台南市立棒球場) is a multi-use stadium in Tainan, Taiwan. It is currently used mostly for baseball games and has been the home stadium of Uni-President Lions since 1990. Chiayi-Tainan Luka also occasionally took this stadium as home between 1997 and 2002, when the Chinese Professional Baseball League and Taiwan Major League engaged in a heated competition.

[edit] History

The stadium was built during the Taiwan under Japanese rule era, although it is not clear when the stadium was opened and first used. The stadium underwent a series of refurbishment during 1970's, and the light poles were added in 1992, enabled the stadium for night time uses; however, because the stadium is located under the flight path of commercial airliners in and out of Tainan Airport, the height of light poles was limited and so the light poles are placed on the spectators seatings, obscuring the view of certain seats and also make the ball hard to see for outfielders when looking for outfield fly balls.

In 1995, the second level of the outfield spectators seatings and elevators were added, making Tainan Stadium the first stadium in Taiwan to have more than one level and expanded the capacity to 14,500. The dimensions of the stadium were extended in 2003 from 380 ft to 400 ft in the center field and respectively all around the outfield, after it has failed to qualify for use of Baseball World Cup in 2001. The LED screen was also added in 2003, just in time for the World University Baseball Championship which was held in 2004. The latest refurbishment was done in 2005, when the infield seatings were changed to a more comfortable kind of chairs; the Lions organization hoped it would make the experience of the fans in the stadium more enjoyable, and thus would attend the game more often. This refurbishment also reduced the stadium capacity to 12,500.

The stadium is currently under the management of Uni-President Lions organization since 1999, although the ownership is still being held by the Tainan City Government.

[edit] Major Events

The stadium was used mostly for domestic, inter-cities and counties competition, and saw very little uses for international competitions. It hosts the CPBL's all-star games twice, and hosted the playoff several times. On the other hand, the stadium also hosted several junior and pre-amateur level international competition, such as IBA Junior Baseball Games and the World University Baseball Championship games.

First professional game in the stadium: April 21, 1990
CPBL All-star Game: 1992, 1996
CPBL Challenger Cup: 1994
CPBL Playoff: 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2006
World University Baseball Championship: 2004

[edit] See Also

Uni-President Lions
Chinese Professional Baseball League

Baseball venues in Taiwan
Active Stadiums
Hsinjuang Baseball Stadium	Tienmu Baseball Stadium	Hsinchu CKS Baseball Stadium
Taichung Baseball Field	Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium	Chiayi Baseball Field
Chiayi Municipal Baseball Stadium	Douliou Baseball Stadium	Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium
Chengching Lake Baseball Field	Kaohsiung Li De Baseball Stadium	Pingtung Baseball Field
Luotong Baseball Field	Hualien Baseball field
Future Stadiums
Taipei Dome
Demolished Stadiums
Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium
Taiwan Series    |    Baseball World Cup    |    Intercontinental Cup    |    Asian Cup Baseball
Taiwan Major League    |    Chinese Professional Baseball League
Chinese Taipei Baseball Team    |    Chinese Taipei Baseball Association