Along Hakata Bay of Fukuoka,
the largest city of southwest Japan, there is a waterfront district
called "Hawks Town", which consists of Fukuoka Dome
and 36-story hotel "Seahawk and Resort" with various
amusement facilities
Fukuoka Dome was completed in 1993 as the first phase of "the
Fukuoka Twin Dome Project", which is a plan Daiei Real Estate
company deliverd in 1988
But yet another dome would never be built because of the collapse
of Japan's extraordinary boom of the 80's
The stadium serves as the headquarters of the Fukuoka SoftBank
Hawks
In 2005, Yahoo! Japan, one of SoftBank Corp's subsidiaries, bought
the stadium's naming rights, and thus renamed it Fukuoka Yahoo!
Japan Dome
The biggest feature of Fukuoka Dome is its retractable roof
Two of the panels of the roof slide around under the third fixed
panel
Opening and closing operations take just twenty minutes
The stadium can accommodate 52,000 spectators and was Japan's
first dome with a retractable roof
The Dimensions
-------------leftfield - 328 feet
-------------centrefield - 400 feet
-------------rightfield - 328 feet
------------------
-----