Basra Sports City


Basra Sports City is a sports complex in Basra, Southern Iraq.

Overview

Its construction started on 1 January 2009 and was completed on 12 October 2013. The sports city is being funded by the government of Iraq with a budget of $550 million, contributed to contain the main stadium with a capacity of 65,000 people, a secondary stadium with a capacity of 10,000, four Five Star hotels and other sports-related facilities.
The contract of this project was given to Abdullah Al-Jaburi, a major Iraqi construction contractor, and two American companies, 360 architecture and Newport Global.
The main stadium is a multilevel structure with 65,000 capacity, 20 suites, and 230 VIP seats. The complex also has VIP lounges and restaurants, spectator facilities, 205 VIP underground parking stalls and a tunnel connecting the main stadium to the secondary stadium. The secondary stadium has a capacity of 10,000. The basic structure was cast-in-place concrete with precast stadia seating. The roof structure is steel and cantilever 30 meters from the back support column of the upper deck with a 15-meter back-span. The stadium is enveloped with a curtain wall of multidirectional curved elements. The complex has 10,000 parking spaces in total.
The stadium is the tenant for Naft Al-Janoob and Al-Mina'a sports clubs who both play in Basra and contest the Basra Derby.
Iraq played their first international home game in four years at the stadium on 1 June 2017, beating Jordan 1–0. It was also the first international game played at the stadium.
On 10 October 2019, Iraq played their first competitive international game at home after eight years against Hong Kong. The result was a 2-0 win.

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