TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taipei Dome held its first basketball game on Saturday (April 13) with a sold-out crowd of 15,600 people, setting a league attendance record.

The game was a matchup of T1 League teams, the New Taipei CTBC DEA against the Taipei Taishin Mars. The two teams agreed to split the reported NT$10 million (US$309,000) cost of converting the dome to a basketball stadium. 

Opened in 2023, Taipei Dome is a baseball stadium that has also hosted music concerts. Making the venue suitable for basketball was a logistical challenge, requiring special flooring and bleacher seating.

To draw more fans, the organizers invited Japanese singer and host Kamenashi Kazuya to make an appearance at halftime. Cheerleader performances and a laser show also livened up the audience.

Spectators were impressed with the venue layout and viewpoints. "I thought it would be far away on the second deck, but I was able to see everything,” said one fan per PTS. 

Still, not everyone was impressed with the new venue. Taipei Taishin Mars forward point guard Lin Bing-sheng (林秉聖) had trouble adapting to the larger venue. He told local media, "The dome has a lot of echoes, and with so many fans watching, it was hard to hear the plays being called.”

The event was a boost for T1 League, which is competing for audiences against two other domestic professional leagues, the original Super Basketball League (SBL) and P. League+. 

The New Taipei CTBC DEA defeated the Taipei Taishin Mars by a score of 88-81, maintaining the team’s position atop the 5-team league. A rematch is scheduled to tip-off at Taipei Dome at 2 p.m. on Sunday (April 14).