The 75,000-seater KJC King Dome located along Carlos P. Garcia Highway in Sasa (the Philippines) was formally opened on September 1st.
The arena is being touted as an engineering marvel.
Largest Indoor Arena
‘Philippine Information Agency’ stated that the new facility, designed to hold Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KoJC – a Philippine-based non-trinitarian religious group) religious gatherings and other civic events, is said to be the world’s largest indoor arena thus eclipsing the 55,000-capacity Philippine Arena in Bulacan (the Philippines), the 55,000-capacity Singapore National Stadium in Kallang, Singapore, and the 57,000-capacity Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan.
The KJC King Dome, also known as the KOJC King Dome or simply Kingdome, is a multipurpose indoor arena and cathedral in Davao City, the Philippines. With a stadium-like seating capacity of 75,000 it is the largest indoor arena in the world surpassing the 55,000-capacity Philippine Arena in Bulacan, the Philippine.
Huge Crowd Attendance
‘Philippine Information Agency’ further stated that the formal opening was attended by an estimated crowd of 80,000 consisting mostly of KoJC Members coming from across the globe alongside the guests and the local Government officials led by the Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte and the city Councilors.
Construction History
The KJC King Dome opening, which was held simultaneously with the church’s 41st founding anniversary, is the culmination of a 14-year-long construction history that started in 2012.
Ambitious Dream
Originally planned as a large cathedral to accommodate the church Members during worship services as a growing church membership outpaced their existing venues this idea grew to an ambitious dream of building a massive arena that can host multipurpose events and activities such as concerts and the sporting games.
MICE Edifice
In 2018, the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) awarded the KJC King Dome with a Certificate of Registration as a Registered Tourism Enterprise-Meetings, Incentives, Conventions Exhibits (MICE). The MICE edifice is part of the Kingdom Global City Tourism Enterprise Zone (TEZ).
The Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) is a Philippine Government-owned Corporation attached to the Department of Tourism. Created in 2009 by the Republic Act No. 9593 it replaced the older Philippine Tourism Authority. The TIEZA builds the tourism infrastructure, manages the public tourism assets, designates the Tourism Enterprise Zones (TEZs), and collects the Philippine Travel Tax.
The Kingdom Global City Tourism Enterprise Zone is an integrated 21-to-26-hectare mixed-use tourism and entertainment complex located in Barangay Sasa/Catitipan (Buhangin District), Davao City, the Philippines.
Planned TEZ
The planned TEZ is an integrated resort leisure destination that will have a hotel, a museum, a commercial center, and an air taxi hangar.
Engineering Marvel
The KJC King Dome is touted as an engineering marvel, a world-class mega structure that the KoJC members and the Dabawenyos (the people who live in or come from Davao City and the broader Davao Region on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines) can be proud of.
Floor Area
Its floor area spans 5.84 hectares or an equivalent of 117 professional basketball courts. Its 2.5-hectare rooftop is large enough to park a fleet of 135 helicopters.
Center Arena
The heart of the KJC King Dome is the 6,616-square-meter center arena vast enough to hold 240 40-foot container vans.
Earthquake-proof
To make it earthquake-proof the Kingdome rests on a board-piling foundation system consisting of 140 reinforced concrete piles and is engineered to withstand an intensity nine earthquake.
Central Post
The Kingdome is also the world’s largest structure without a central post. The structure is reinforced by 32 reinforced concrete footings, the pedestal upstands and the tie beams which are connected to the foundations resting on 140 board-reinforced concrete piles. The main structural loads converge on four main columns that support two massive steel trusses each spanning 140 meters.
Sunken Design
As the site is adjacent to the Davao International Airport strict flight-path height limitations were imposed. To address these requirements the builders excavated nine meters into the ground to satisfy the 64-meter-above-sea-level average elevation. This sunken design is similar to the 20,000-seat Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles, California (US), popularly known as the home of the National Basketball Association (NBA) team Los Angeles Lakers.
Exterior Design
The exterior design of the dome resembles a crown and its diamond-shaped curtain walls are inspired by the spiky durian fruit while the golden canopies channel the majestic Philippine Eagle.
Multicolored Seats
Meanwhile, the arena’s 75,000 multicolored seats are meticulously aligned to form the rays of the sun.
“We are the sun, we are the light of the world,” Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, the Founder of KoJC, once explained the concept for the seating pattern.
Culture Fusion
The Kingdome’s interior incorporates many elements such as American, European, Oriental, and modern styles. A fusion of different cultures and periods.
Mechanical-Electrical Building
To meet the electrical and cooling needs of the structure there is an isolated 7.000 square meter mechanical-electrical building, the largest single-building infrastructure of its kind in the Philippines. The building houses the transformers, the generators, the water pumps, the chillers, and the cooling towers needed to power and cool the Kingdome.
Cooling System
The cooling system of the Kingdome delivers 10,800 Tons of Refrigeration (TR) in total cooling capacity and is the largest air-conditioning load in the Philippines. The Kingdome and the structures inside the compound are supported by two main transformers with a combined capacity of 25 megavolt-amperes (MVA) or 20 megawatts. In case of power interruption a standby power system is supplied by eight generators which combined can supply 16 megawatts of power, equivalent to the power requirement of a small city.
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