After nearly 4 years under construction, the Samuel Farthing Memorial Football Stadium was finally unveiled this past Wednesday. Designed specifically to host several of the group-stage and finals matches of the 2022 IDU Football Championship later this summer, the athletic complex has a seating capacity of 91,000 spectators, making it by far the highest-capacity sports venue in the country.
Coming in at an eye-popping 1.4 billion dollars, nearly 300 million dollars over budget, for the city officials of Litudinem, the completion of this megastructure could not come soon enough. In addition to running significantly over-budget, the stadium was supposed to be completed in autumn of 2021. The project blew past its initial deadline and was even stalled for a few weeks last January, when the city unsuccessfully attempted to renegotiate their contract with an independent firm involved with the stadium's construction.
To "break the venue in" and show off the monolithic achievement to the general public, an exposition match between Litudinem Football Club and Litudinem Athletic Association will be held at the stadium next Saturday. Players from both teams, in addition to 10 other domestic major-league football clubs, will be competing together under the Maximusian banner this summer. While the Maximusian national team has not historically performed well in IDUFC tournaments, head coach Thomas Medina stated in a recent press release that he believes the "home field advantage" will give the team the edge it needs to "drive home strong plays" and exceed all expectations.
Following the end of the IDUFC tournament, the stadium, which is named in honor of Samuel Farthing (1927-2013), the mayor of Litudinem between 1978-1986, will become the home venue for Litudinem Football Club. Having completed their 32nd and final season at the Bailey Sports Center last year, players from Litudinem FC are no doubt anxious to hit the pitch this weekend and get a feel for what will soon be their home turf.