Thai Boxing Stadium To Be Demolished To Make Room For High-Rise Development

Bangkok's "legendary" Lumpinee Boxing Stadium "will be demolished after 57 years to make way for high-rise urban development," according to Amy Sawitta Lefevre of REUTERS. Lumpinee's circular structure, "with an ageing tin roof that lets in rain and sunlight, is a stone's throw from the central oasis of Lumpini Park and had avoided Bangkok's frenetic building boom." The stadium "harks back to the capital's golden days before the invasion of skyscrapers that now soar above it." But it stands on prime real estate "and its lease was not renewed by the Crown Property Bureau, one of Bangkok's biggest landlords and the fund that supports Thailand's monarchy." That is forcing the stadium to move to a new venue on the outer fringes of the sprawling city -- "a logistical hassle for tourists and Thais who have flocked to Lumpinee for decades" (REUTERS, 2/11).