IAI Stadium Nihondaira 1.98

The IAI Stadium Nihondaira is a football stadium in Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka, Japan. It is currently mostly used for football matches and has been the home stadium of the J-League's Shimizu S-Pulse since 1993. The stadium holds 20,339 people and was opened in 1991. In November 2008 a four-year naming deal effective from March 2009 was announced expected to earn S-Pulse 360,000,000 yen. The stadium was known as The Outsourcing Stadium until February 2013. As Shizuoka City and Shimizu S-Pulse reached a 5-year deal with IAI Corporation, a manufacturer industrial robots, the stadium has been renamed as IAI Stadium Nihondaira effective 1 March 2013.HistoryThe stadium first opened in 1991 with two stands and a capacity of 13,000. In its debut year the stadium was used to host the football tournament of the annual All Japan High School Athletics Meet. Subsequent expansion took place before the first J-League season in 1993 which added two more stands and took the capacity up to 18,500. Since then, the ground has been further expanded with the current capacity standing at 20,339. Future expansion is far from impossible, although limited access to the stadium is the biggest hurdle towards a further enlarged capacity.In 2004, 2008 and again in 2009 the stadium's pitch received the award for the best kept playing surface in the J-League.