Once upon a time, the largest stadium in terms of capacity was the legendary Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Opened back in 1950, the arena was capable of hosting up to 200,000 fans per match. The record was set during the match between Brazil and Uruguay in the fourth World Cup. At that time, 199,850 spectators attended the match. But progress, as well as stricter security requirements, left Mario Filho (official name) no choice but – total reconstruction. As a result, and to date, the stadium has a capacity of 78,838 spectators. But reconstruction continues and after all the work is complete, the capacity of the arena will be 95,000 people!
But even this figure will not allow Maracana to regain the podium in terms of capacity, as it (the podium) belongs to a stadium with 150,000 seats for spectators!
Where? Where do people love sports in general and soccer in particular so much that they built such a grand structure? The answer is simple – in North Korea! And as it turned out, they love not only and not so much the soccer as the annual mass spectacles dedicated to important events for the country! The stadium, which has received a very “telling” name of May Day, is located in the capital of the country – the city of Pyongyang, and, as already noted, can accommodate up to 150,000 people! We should also recognize the rather original shape of the building – a magnolia flower, albeit quite monumental.
The stadium hosts home matches of the National Football Team. Competitions in other sports are also held here. But the main event, which sometimes gathers not only thousands of spectators, but also a hundred thousand participants, is the annual show Ariran (sports and theater show dedicated to the formation of DPRK).
It should be noted that the Ariran show is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s most massive sports and artistic performance! A peculiar “chip” of this performance is the “live panel” on the opposite side of the stadium from the spectators. Thousands of Korean schoolchildren reproduce “live” pictures from the country’s history with their precise movements!