Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium
Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium () is a stadium in Beitun District, Taichung, Taiwan. The stadium officially opened on November 9, 2006, replacing the antiquated Taichung Baseball Field. Located on the corner of Chongde Road (崇德路) and Huanzhong Road (環中路), it has considerably more parking available than the old stadium, which will be much more convenient for fans. The stadium is a venue for rock concerts and also hosted Zhang Yimou's Turandot at the Bird's Nest in 2010. Construction. Construction on the stadium began in 2005 and is operating on the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) model  that is becoming increasingly common among public works projects in Taiwan. The first phase includes 15,000 infield seats, all with seatback chairs. After the second phase was completed in 2008, seating capacity was expanded to 20,000 by adding 5,000 outfield seats. Major events. The first major event hosted by the new stadium was the 2006 Intercontinental Cup, a baseball competition between eight nations from four different continents. South Korea defeated the Philippines in the opener 10–0, followed by Chinese Taipei's defeat against Italy 3–13 on November 9. On the final day of the 2006 Intercontinental Cup it was announced  that the 2007 Baseball World Cup will be held in Taichung, with this stadium one of the two to be used for the tournament. The stadium also hosted some games at the 2007 Asian Baseball Championship, which counted as the 2008 Summer Olympics qualifier for the Asia region. The stadium hosted the Pool B in the first round of the 2013 World Baseball Classic. The ballpark has hosted a number of games of the Asia Winter Baseball League, most recently in November/December 2018 World Baseball City. Due to the success of 2006 Intercontinental Cup, Taichung City Government and Chinese  Taipei Baseball Association start striving to hold various of international events in following years. The stadium had hosted 10 International Baseball Federation (IBAF) events in first 10 years since the stadium had established. IBAF awarded the World Baseball City medal during the opening ceremony of 2013 18U Baseball World Cup in order to appreciate the contribution that Taichung City Government had done. Taichung City became the first city to be awarded by IBAF. The World Baseball City stele was also erected at the stadium entrance. Name confusion. From the beginning of this project, the stadium had been known as the  Taichung International Standard Baseball Stadium. However, newspaper reports had referred to it as the Taichung International Baseball Stadium, (dropping the word "Standard".) A Chinese language schedule for the 2006 Intercontinental Cup had identified the stadium as the Taichung Intercontinental Stadium. According to a report in 2006, the mayor of Taichung, Jason Hu, announced that the name of the stadium has been officially designated as Intercontinental Baseball Stadium. This is in honor of the event being the first to be held at the stadium.