Félix Sánchez Olympic Stadium () is an open-air

multi-purpose stadium A multi-purpose stadium is a type of stadium designed to be easily used for multiple types of events. While any stadium could potentially host more than one type of sport or event, this concept usually refers to a design philosophy that stres ...

Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

. Opened in 1974 for the XII Central American & Caribbean Games and renovated

2003 Pan American Games The 2003 Pan American Games, officially the XIV Pan American Games () and commonly known as Santo Domingo 2003, were held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, from August 1 to 17, 2003. The successful bid for the Games was made in the mid-1990 ...

is the largest stadium in the Dominican Republic used mostly for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

and as a

music venue A music venue is any location used for a concert or musical performance. Music venues range in size and location, from a small coffeehouse for folk music shows, an outdoor bandshell or bandstand or a concert hall to an indoor sports stadium. Ty ...

. The stadium has a sporting events' capacity of 27,000 people, though it has seen crowds of 35,000. For concerts, its stated capacity is 50,000 people. It was formerly known as ''Estadio Olímpico Juan Pablo Duarte'', because of the sports complex where it is located (Centro Olímpico Juan Pablo Duarte), However, in 2005 it was named after the 400 m hurdles

athlete An athlete is most commonly a person who competes in one or more sports involving physical strength, speed, power, or endurance. Sometimes, the word "athlete" is used to refer specifically to sport of athletics competitors, i.e. including track ...

Félix Sánchez after he won the gold medal at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

. It served as home of the Dominican football teams Bauger FC and Atletico Pantoja and it's of one of the two stadium that served as home of the

Dominican Republic national football team The Dominican Republic national football team () represents the Dominican Republic in men's international Association football, football, and is governed by the Dominican Football Federation, Federación Dominicana de Fútbol (). The team is a m ...

History

In February 1966, it began the construction of the Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic complex to host the XII Central American & Caribbean Games. Concluded in February 1974, the stadium was inaugurated with the name of Juan Pablo Duarte Stadium named after the founding father. It had a capacity of 22,000. The stadium hosted the track & field events of the XII Central American & Caribbean Games between 27 February and 13 March 1974. Between the 1980s and 1990s the stadium served for several events including concerts and religion celebration. 1997 the stadium served as venue of the first edition of the Latin Music Festival sponsored by the Dominican beer Presidente, Festival Presidente de la Musica Latina. The music festival was a commercial success, invited several international pop starts. The music festival returned in 1998, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2010, 2014 & 2017. It was renovated for the 2003 Pan America Games to host the track & field events and the opening and closing ceremonies. It was equipped with 24,000 fixed seats and areas for special guests, press, dressing rooms and a cafeteria. It was inaugurated on 23 July 2003, by the president Hipolito Mejia and the renovation cost over US$6 million of dollars. In August 2004, the stadium hosted a friendly game between the national team of Brazil and Haiti and it included the participation of football stars of Ronaldo and Ronhaldino. In May 2005, the name of the stadium was official changed to Felix Sanchez Olympic Stadium honoring the 400 m hurdles

Félix Sánchez for winning a gold medal at the

. In 2012, he won another medal on the same category at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. During the 2000s and 2010s decades several international pop artists performed concerts at the stadium including Shakira, Coldplay, Daddy Yankee, Juan Luis Guerra, Luis Miguel, Ricardo Arjona, Maroon 5, Britney Spears. It is set to host matches for the

2024 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup The 2024 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup () was the 8th edition of the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, the biennial international women's youth football championship contested by the under-17 national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It was hos ...

including in the final.

Notable events

References

Sources

events

concerts

installationstadium data
{{DEFAULTSORT:Estadio Olimpico Felix Sanchez Athletics (track and field) venues in the Dominican Republic Sports venues in Santo Domingo Multi-purpose stadiums in the Caribbean Venues of the 2003 Pan American Games Pan American Games opening ceremony stadiums Pan American Games athletics venues Sports venues completed in 1974 1974 establishments in the Dominican Republic