PYONGYANG - Rungnado 1st of May Stadium (150,000)

[bthj]

I don't think anybody is buying their ticket.

[KwunTongChai]

You can use the "ruler" feature on Google Earth to get the measurements of the stadium.

Here's how you can do it:
1) Download and open the "google earth" software.
2) Zoom in to PyongYang.
3) Find the stadium.
4) From the "tools" pull-down tab, select "ruler"
5) Change the "length" parameter to meters or feet.
6) Calibrate the measurement -- find a few things of standard measurement and see if the "ruler" gives a plausible readout.
7) Measure your object of interest

For the stadium, there are a couple nearby objects for calibration.
a) 2 cars on the motorway. They come out at 7' width (van" and 6' width (car). Both entirely plausible.
b) green courts NE of the stadium. I don't know what these are, but there's two vertical rectangles of olive green, both are exactly 100' long. A measurement that standard usually means the calibration is dead on.
c) something that looks like a soccer pitch, slightly off the N-S axis, comes out at 298' If this is a 300' pitch, then Google Earth is about 1% shy of the actual measurement.

Do any of you stadium wonks see other sporting field objects that are of a standard measurement? How about that oval track, or other fields on that island?

For measuring the stadium itself, I get the following.
* length of green rectangular pitch inside the stadium: 400'
* width of green rectangular pitch inside 240'
* total length of field between north and south stands 633'
* total width of field between east and west stands 437' (guessing a bit for on the side where the stands are hidden under the roof).
* total width of stadium, from outside structural wall to outside structural wall 1143'
* total length of stadium 1332'
Judging from the outside photos, the inside wall is recessed about twice the distance from the outside arch base to the outside arch peak (the arch bases stick out further than the peaks). This distance is 83', so subtracting 332' from the length and width gives us an actual stadium structure size of 1000' long and 817' wide.

For comparison,the Rose Bowl stadium has
* length of field between north and south stands: 393'
* width of field east-west 261'
* total width of stadium 688'
* total length of stadium 887'
(Rose Bowl is easily calibrated by all the cars in the parking lot,all are 6.0 - 7.0' wide, and the faint traces of lines on the field put the football field at 304' long, so the google earth measurements are about 1% too generous)

***********

Summary: 1st of May is much, much bigger than the Rose Bowl
* Field is twice as large
* Seating areas are at least twice as large

Rose Bowl Stadium:
Field is 400' long, 261' wide
Field area about 110,000 (rectangle plus a bit for the oval ends)
Stadium seating area is 887' long, 688' wide.
Seating area 386,300 sf

1st of May Stadium:
Field is 633' long, 437' wide
Field area 217,100 sf (1.97 times the size of the Rose Bowl)
Stadium seating area is 1000' long, 817' wide
Stadium seating area 424,200 sf (1.15 times the size of the Rose Bowl. But much of it is 2 layers thick. Maybe 50%? So seating area is about 1.72 times the size of the Rose Bowl)

If the Rose Bowl seats 92,500, and the 1st of May has 1.7 times the seating area, it should seat about 157,250 people. If North Koreans are a bit skinnier, then even more!

Comments, corrections?
KwunTongChai

(edited 6 hrs after initial posting)

[leomarques]

Nice but,
why not in meters??

[likasz]

Kim will be dead till next year (I hope so) and everybody will be able to count the seats.

[KwunTongChai]

Leomarques wrote

>> Nice but,
why not in meters?? <<

Dude, no need to whack your head against the wall. Just multiply by 3.2808...

Relative sizes are just as meaningful in feet, meters, cubits, etc.

KTC

[miguelon]

I think that they might be able to fit 150,000 people in there, but at a totally diferent standard to western stadiums. This same stadium structure, with wide individual seats, plus your press area, ground looking restaurant, VIP lounge, 100+ boxes, wide escalators, etc, etc..... will be in the 100,000 range, similar to Azteca or new Wembley.

[leomarques]

Originally Posted by KwunTongChai

Leomarques wrote

>> Nice but,
why not in meters?? <<

Dude, no need to whack your head against the wall. Just multiply by 3.2808...

Relative sizes are just as meaningful in feet, meters, cubits, etc.

KTC

I know how to convert feets in meters! Even cells phones have this function nowadays.
The wall guy was just a joke, because I think that in international forums the SI should be used!

[TerrierChad]

Damn metric system :P

I don't really see much reason why it wouldn't be. From reading the thread almost all the evidence points towards it been in and around the 150,000 mark. The only argument against it seems to be that it's North Korea.

[jean1991]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9Ulr...eature=related

Here you go, it's the best video of the stadium i have seen, if u can see the whole series, its really interesting.

After seeing the video, i can see how it can sit 150,000.

[Naipesky]

Hard to believe:




Cause the enter-exits i removed around 88 red seats and 24 white seats.

So, the total for section is around ~2,768






And my count need all the sides of the stadium free to seated people. Even so, need more ~1000 people in each 8-part as above in the 2nd pic.

Only with seats over the green.


Edit: This other good image (from this topic) showing the inside (empty) confirms that there isnt more than 8 sections for each ~3 parts of the roof. (I dont know how many sections are in total)

[likasz]

So 150.000 is for concerts I mean parades

[eMKay]

Originally Posted by KwunTongChai

You can use the "ruler" feature on Google Earth to get the measurements of the stadium.

Here's how you can do it:
1) Download and open the "google earth" software.
2) Zoom in to PyongYang.
3) Find the stadium.
4) From the "tools" pull-down tab, select "ruler"
5) Change the "length" parameter to meters or feet.
6) Calibrate the measurement -- find a few things of standard measurement and see if the "ruler" gives a plausible readout.
7) Measure your object of interest

For the stadium, there are a couple nearby objects for calibration.
a) 2 cars on the motorway. They come out at 7' width (van" and 6' width (car). Both entirely plausible.
b) green courts NE of the stadium. I don't know what these are, but there's two vertical rectangles of olive green, both are exactly 100' long. A measurement that standard usually means the calibration is dead on.
c) something that looks like a soccer pitch, slightly off the N-S axis, comes out at 298' If this is a 300' pitch, then Google Earth is about 1% shy of the actual measurement.

Do any of you stadium wonks see other sporting field objects that are of a standard measurement? How about that oval track, or other fields on that island?

For measuring the stadium itself, I get the following.
* length of green rectangular pitch inside the stadium: 400'
* width of green rectangular pitch inside 240'
* total length of field between north and south stands 633'
* total width of field between east and west stands 437' (guessing a bit for on the side where the stands are hidden under the roof).
* total width of stadium, from outside structural wall to outside structural wall 1143'
* total length of stadium 1332'
Judging from the outside photos, the inside wall is recessed about twice the distance from the outside arch base to the outside arch peak (the arch bases stick out further than the peaks). This distance is 83', so subtracting 332' from the length and width gives us an actual stadium structure size of 1000' long and 817' wide.

For comparison,the Rose Bowl stadium has
* length of field between north and south stands: 393'
* width of field east-west 261'
* total width of stadium 688'
* total length of stadium 887'
(Rose Bowl is easily calibrated by all the cars in the parking lot,all are 6.0 - 7.0' wide, and the faint traces of lines on the field put the football field at 304' long, so the google earth measurements are about 1% too generous)

***********

Summary: 1st of May is much, much bigger than the Rose Bowl
* Field is twice as large
* Seating areas are at least twice as large

Rose Bowl Stadium:
Field is 400' long, 261' wide
Field area about 110,000 (rectangle plus a bit for the oval ends)
Stadium seating area is 887' long, 688' wide.
Seating area 386,300 sf

1st of May Stadium:
Field is 633' long, 437' wide
Field area 217,100 sf (1.97 times the size of the Rose Bowl)
Stadium seating area is 1000' long, 817' wide
Stadium seating area 424,200 sf (1.15 times the size of the Rose Bowl. But much of it is 2 layers thick. Maybe 50%? So seating area is about 1.72 times the size of the Rose Bowl)

If the Rose Bowl seats 92,500, and the 1st of May has 1.7 times the seating area, it should seat about 157,250 people. If North Koreans are a bit skinnier, then even more!

Comments, corrections?
KwunTongChai

(edited 6 hrs after initial posting)

Excellent work, convinced me. Even checked your work on Google Earth and got the same numbers.

[www.sercan.de]

117k sound more realistic.
Still largest in the world?!?!

[Naipesky]

My bad, Rungnado stadium CAN be 150k.

Originally Posted by Naipesky

Hard to believe:




Cause the enter-exits i removed around 88 red seats and 24 white seats.

So, the total for section is around ~2,768


http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/4161/mayday2.jpg




And my count need all the sides of the stadium free to seated people. Even so, need more ~1000 people in each 8-part as above in the 2nd pic.

Only with seats over the green.

There is a huge error in my count: The number of seats in this part of stadium is a lot minor than in the 2 center sections.


half-end of stadium, i used tis picture to count the seats.




begining of the center sections in red: Creary more seats in each section.




Looking from above:



If my early "average" calculation found a number just 33k less than 150, with this upgrade that number of seats is very believable.




...tihS hO. Now nobody of us need ask to Kim Jong-II to allow enter in this stadium and finally count all that....

[eMKay]

Too bad it's useless for anything but state propaganda extravaganzas

The field is too big to be good for any sports...except maybe dressage but I don't see 150,000 people turning up for that, strangely fascinating that it is.

[parcdesprinces]

Originally Posted by Naipesky

need ask to Kim Jong-II to allow enter in this stadium and finally count all that....

I want to see this gorgeous stadium, with my own eyes, once in my lifetime too..

Please, please dear Kim Jong-il, dear great leader: You must allow us to come in !!!!

[Marin Mostar]

Originally Posted by eMKay

Too bad it's useless for anything but state propaganda extravaganzas

The field is too big to be good for any sports...except maybe dressage but I don't see 150,000 people turning up for that, strangely fascinating that it is.

How is the field to big? It looks the same as any other olympic size field/stadium.

[Lord David]

Originally Posted by parcdesprinces

I want to see this gorgeous stadium, with my own eyes, once in my lifetime too..

Please, please dear Kim Jong-il, dear great leader: You must allow us to come in !!!!

They do allow you to come in, assuming they hold another Mass Games.

But in all reality, expect foreigners to come more often after Kim's reign has ended with his death, or another revolution. Nonetheless, should NK open up itself to the outside world, then you can expect more people coming to visit.

[eMKay]

Originally Posted by Marin Mostar

How is the field to big? It looks the same as any other olympic size field/stadium.

Look at the post above with all the calculations of field size, it's twice the size of the rose bowl.

[south]

Originally Posted by eMKay

Too bad it's useless for anything but state propaganda extravaganzas

The field is too big to be good for any sports...except maybe dressage but I don't see 150,000 people turning up for that, strangely fascinating that it is.

It looks perfect for Australian Rules football. I wonder if North Korea would ever be up for hosting an AFL Grand Final?