What Are The Most Famous Temporary Portable Sports Venues?

Whilst a sporting event will have clearly defined boundaries and schedules that allow for the construction of purpose-built infrastructure such as stadiums and arenas, there is a long-standing precedent and history for portable sports shelters to be used for sporting events.

Larger industrial tents are often very suitable for some sporting events that require a large, indoor venue, as they can provide shelter and security suitable for setting up a playing surface that will meet the requirements of a particular sporting federation.

In other cases, adverse weather or changes in circumstances necessitate the use of temporary structures instead, either to serve as the venue or to add additional capacity in cases where the original venue was oversubscribed.

However, there are several temporary venues that have been used for major, widely publicised and widely televised sporting events, showcasing the versatility and potential for temporary structures.

Here are some of the most notable examples.

Stadium 974

One of the most ambitious and successful achievements in temporary sports infrastructure history, Stadium 974 was a stadium made up of 974 shipping containers and their contents, creating one of the greatest temporary sports venues ever made.

Initially constructed on the Doha waterfront in Qatar, Stadium 974 was part of an explicit effort to reduce the number of dedicated stadium projects required to host a major tournament that ended up becoming unused white elephants at the end of the tournament.

Stadium 974’s intention is that it can be transported in its entirety in 974 recycled shipping containers, those containers form the main superstructure but also house the seats, the structural uprights and the roof, creating a venue that matches FIFA’s exacting standards.

At present, it has hosted 13 matches, six at the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup and seven at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and as of 2024 has a legacy complicated by factors outside of its control.

It was meant to be used for the Africa Cup of Nations at some point before being transported to Uruguay to be used for the 2030 World Cup pending the success of a South American bid that included not only the original World Cup hosts in 1930 but also Chile, Paraguay and Argentina.

Empire Field

Typically, when a sports stadium needs significant redevelopment, they will move to the nearby home ground of another team, often a competitor, or alternatively a national stadium that is not currently being used.

However, when the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League needed to leave their traditional home ground of BC Place in 2010, an alternative temporary stadium in Hastings Park, East Vancouver was constructed to facilitate the change.

Similar to Stadium 974, it was designed by a company that specialised in modular, temporary stadiums and was initially intended to set a precedent that allowed other teams in sports leagues such as the Canadian Football League and Major League Soccer to use temporary accommodation.

Ultimately, this had not set a precedent, less for practical reasons given the relative popularity of Empire Field, but more that a temporary stadium would imply that the team themselves would also be a short-term prospect and a permanent stadium is seen as a statement of purpose.