is a

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 ...

stadium in the Nanakita Park, Izumi-ku, Sendai City,

Miyagi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. Miyagi Prefecture has a population of 2,265,724 (1 August 2023) and has a geographic area of . Miyagi Prefecture borders Iwate Prefecture to the north, Akit ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. Built in 1997, it is home to

Vegalta Sendai is a Japanese professional association football, football club based in Sendai, Miyagi, Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. They currently play in J2 League, the Japanese second tier of professional football. History Founded in 1988 as ''Tohoku Elect ...

, Mynavi Sendai Ladies and Sony Sendai. The stadium was specifically designed for football, and the stands are arranged close to the pitch. For games where the spectator capacity is insufficient, nearby Miyagi Stadium is occasionally used as a substitute.

History

The naming rights for the stadium were sold beginning on March 1, 2006 until February 28, 2009. In that period, the stadium is officially known as . In 2009, the turf were replaced, and Vegalta played the first half of the season at Miyagi Stadium. The stadium was damaged after the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a 9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...

. It ranks among the top stadiums in Japan for its presence, comfort, and accessibility, and was once ranked second in an evaluation by a famous Japanese football media. In June 2024, the park next to the stadium hosted the annual

Pokémon GO ''Pokémon Go'' (stylized as ''Pokémon GO'') is a 2016 augmented reality (AR) mobile game originally developed and published by Niantic in collaboration with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company for iOS and Android devices. It uses mobile devic ...

Fest 2024 and around 400,000 attendees from all over the world participated in the event, making it the second largest Pokémon GO gathering after the 2023 one hosted in

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

's Expo 70's Commerative Stadium.

International matches

Football

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

used the stadium as their base for training camp during the

2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

, and cast images of the team members footprints are on display outside the stadium. The Sendai Cup (An international youth football tournament) has been held annually since 2003. Italy, France

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

, and

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

have participated, along with the hosts,

. Exhibition matches between Vegalta Sendai and A.C. ChievoVerona and S.S. Lazio have been played at Sendai Stadium as well. The match with Chievo in 2003 was the final club game for

Oliver Bierhoff Oliver Bierhoff (born 1 May 1968) is a German association football official and former player who played as a striker. He has previously served as the technical director of the Germany national team. A tall, strong and prolific goalscorer, Bier ...

Rugby

On June 16, 2007, the stadium was the venue for

vs.

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

in the 2007 IRB Pacific Nations Cup. It was the first time an international rugby game had been played in the

Tōhoku region The , Northeast region, , or consists of the northeastern portion of Honshu, the largest island of Japan. This traditional region consists of six prefectures (): Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi, and Yamagata. Tōhoku retains ...

. On June 15, 2008, Japan defeated

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

35–13 at the stadium in the

2008 IRB Pacific Nations Cup The 2008 Pacific Nations Cup was a rugby union tournament held between six national sides on the Pacific Rim: Australia A, Fiji, Japan, Samoa, Tonga and New Zealand Māori (just for this year). The inaugural competition was held in 2006. This ...

Access

* Nanboku Line: 8 minutes walk from Izumi-Chūō Station.

References

External links

Pictures of Sendai Stadium
(Much information on this site is out of date)
WorldStadiums.com entry
Sports venues in Sendai Football venues in Japan Rugby union stadiums in Japan Vegalta Sendai American football venues in Japan 1997 establishments in Japan Sports venues completed in 1997 {{japan-stadium-stub