MasterCard Center

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MasterCard Center
万事达中心

Exterior of arena
Former names Wukesong Culture & Sports Center (2008-11)
Location Beijing, China
Broke ground 29 March 2005
Opened 11 January 2008 (2008-01-11)
Renovated 2009
Closed October 2008 - November 2009
Owner Bloomage International Investment Group
Operator AEG China
Architect Gu Yonghui
Capacity 18,000
Website www.mastercardcenter.com.cn
Tenants
Chinese Olympic Committee
2008 Summer Olympics

The MasterCard Center (simplified Chinese: 万事达中心; traditional Chinese: 萬事達中心), formerly Beijing Wukesong Culture & Sports Center (simplified Chinese: 五棵松体育馆; traditional Chinese: 五棵松體育館), is an indoor arena for the 2008 Summer Olympics basketball preliminaries and finals. Ground was broken on 29 March 2005 and construction was completed on 11 January 2008. The stadium has a capacity of 18,000 and covers an area of 63,000 square metres. It was scaled back from its original design due to a 43% budget cut.[citation needed]

The stadium was constructed by "Beijing Wukesong Cultural & Sports Co. Ltd." whose five shareholders are Zhongguancun CENCONS Group, Haidian State-owned Assets Investment Co. Ltd, Beijing Urban Construction Group Co. Ltd, Beijing Urban Construction Co. Ltd and the Tianhong Group. After the Olympic Games, the center become an important part of Beijing's Olympic Games heritage, allowing citizens to enjoy cultural, sports, leisure, recreational and commercial activities. It was a large-scale comprehensive project rare in Beijing in integrating cultural, sporting functions and commercial purposes with large-scale gardens and green space.

On 6 January 2011 MasterCard Worldwide, the rival of Olympic sponsor Visa, announced the acquisition of the naming rights to the Center. It was renamed MasterCard Center effective from 21 January 2011.

Baseball field

Wukesong Baseball Field during the MLB China Series in 2008.

The Wukesong Baseball Field (simplified Chinese: 五棵松棒球场; traditional Chinese: 五棵松棒球場; pinyin: Wǔkēsōng Bàngqiúchǎng) was a baseball stadium located next to the Wukesong Indoor Stadium at the Wukesong Culture and Sports Centre in Beijing, China. It was one of the nine temporary venues at the 2008 Summer Olympics. It hosted baseball events.

The baseball field had a total land surface of 12,000 square metres and a capacity of 15,000. It included two competition fields and one training field.

In March 2008, the stadium hosted two games between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres called the MLB China Series, marking the first time Major League Baseball teams played in China. 

In what was to be the final Olympic Baseball matches in the foreseeable future, as the International Olympic Committee voted-out the baseball event for the upcoming 2012 London Olympics and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics in favor of golf and rugby sevens,[1] Team USA clenched the bronze medal, while South Korea beat Cuba to claim the gold medal.[2]

After the Olympic games ended, the facilities were demolished, as planned, for a shopping mall.[3][4][5]

Procurement information

Wukesong Indoor Stadium, during the 2008 Summer Olympics.
  • Main building: construction materials, ventilation equipment, electrical equipment, water supply and drainage etc.
  • Sports field: special wooden sports flooring
  • Accessory equipment: stands seats, stand protection and lifting system, illumination, electronic displays, communication and broadcasting equipment, fire fighting equipment etc.
  • An Information Age building: network system equipment, network technical equipment, network solutions, security system, database technologies and products.
  • An Intelligent building: acoustical equipment, air conditioning, elevators, electronic monitoring, electronic fire-fighting systems, etc.
  • Outdoor engineering: garden, afforestation and square tiles etc.
  • Project Venue: The project is located at the intersection of the extended section of Chang'an Street and the West 4th Ring, adjacent to Wukesong Station on metro Line 1.
  • Construction Scale: The planned construction area is about 350,000 square meters.
  • Construction Schedule: Construction began in March 2005. The baseball field started in second half of the year 2005, completed in May 2007 and the stadium completed in August 2007.

Notable events

References

Coordinates: 39°54′33″N 116°16′23″E / 39.90917°N 116.27306°E / 39.90917; 116.27306

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