Intercontinental Baseball Stadium
I don't know why but somehow this stadium got me interested in learning about its history and backgrounds. Fortunately the information is plenty and readily available. On this one, I probably spent more time building, modifying, and rebuilding than usual.
Since opening in 2006, Intercontinental Baseball Stadium (臺中洲際棒球場) is an important stadium for Taiwan. It is located in Taichung City and has hosted numerous international competitions including WBC opening round. It is also a key venue for the local professional league CPBL.
What I find interesting about CPBL is that, during its first decade or two, teams didn't operate out of any specific home ballpark. Games can be scheduled in any city with a stadium big enough to host such event. The league was like a traveling road show that goes around the entire Taiwan island every summer. Some time during the 2000s, teams began to emulate similar practices as U.S or Japan. Every team adopted an existing stadium as their home ballpark and really tried to grow the fan base regionally.
CTBC Brothers (formerly known as Brother Hotel Elephants) settled in Intercontinental Baseball Stadium. Wikipedia says: "With its long history from the amateur era plus a successful marketing strategy and management, the team has long been one of the most popular Taiwanese baseball teams, winning the CPBL championship on nine occasions".
I agree from what I saw in various videos. Their fans are very passionate, and the team had transformed the stadium to feel much more professional. I found many pictures that show the difference, so I've done two versions:
Generic Stadium - from the "road show" era
The stadium itself is already pretty cool. I like the look of the unique railing system but I had no idea what it's for. Only after very close inspection did I realize that it is used to hold the front part of the roof with steel cables. There is also a highway that runs behind the stadium. I just had to include it in the model
After becoming the home of CTBC Brothers
Many parts of the stadium have changed colors to fit the team's theme (yellow and navy blue). The playing field improved so the stadium can be part of WBC. I'm showing this by using patterned grass. There is a new digital scoreboard, and a ton of advertisement all over the place.
Generic Version Download link:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/h81m5...neric.zip/file
Brothers Version Download link:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/w3q08...thers.zip/file