Maccabiah Stadium

The stadium was built on what had been a deserted plot of sand dunes at the northern edge of Tel Aviv, between the mouth of the Yarkon River and the Mediterranean coast.[1] Its construction followed a decision made approximately two months before the First Maccabiah was due to begin to move the event from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, leaving organizers with an urgent need for a dedicated facility.[2]

The building process took six weeks.[2] Construction materials were hauled from the Ramle train station to Tel Aviv by camel, and the work transformed an empty, uneven plot into a level sports ground.[4] The running track was fashioned in part from coal cinders supplied by the railway administration.[4] The stadium was completed on the eve of the opening ceremony.[1] It stood in the exhibition-grounds area of northern Tel Aviv.[3]

Capacity figures are inconsistent. The Central Zionist Archives records 5,000 seated places and 1,500 standing places.[2] Walla reports 5,000 seats and room for 15,000 standing spectators.[6] A Ynet account instead gives 500 seats with the same standing capacity of 15,000 and says the stadium could not accommodate the crowds who arrived.[1] The stadium was expanded to 7,000 seats in 1957.[6]

The First Maccabiah ran from March 28 through April 6, 1932.[1] At the opening ceremony, Tel Aviv mayor Meir Dizengoff rode into the stadium on a white horse at the head of the athletes' procession, and 2,500 gymnasts performed a mass display.[1] Organizers also released 120 carrier pigeons—ten for each of the twelve tribes of Israel—to carry news of the Games.[7] The Central Zionist Archives describes the occasion as the opening of an international Jewish sporting event.[8]

The Central Zionist Archives records that 390 athletes from 18 countries in Europe, Asia, and the United States competed in athletics, swimming, football, field hockey, tennis, handball, water polo, fencing, volleyball, diving, and other disciplines.[2] Published country counts vary considerably. Two World Jewish Congress accounts report 14 and 22 countries respectively.[7][4] A separate Central Zionist Archives entry gives 21 countries, while Encyclopedia.com gives 23.[8][9]

Because the stadium was too small and suitable facilities were lacking, events were spread across several venues. Gymnastics was held on a wooden platform in the roofless Rina Garden in Tel Aviv; swimming and water polo took place in the waters of Haifa Port; and the 10,000-meter race ran through Tel Aviv's streets and along the beach.[4][1] The stadium itself hosted athletics and football.[1] Contemporary archival material identifies the First Maccabiah as an international Jewish sporting event, while Ynet describes its stadium as the first of its kind in Eretz Israel.[8][1]

The stadium continued to serve Maccabiah events after 1932. During the Second Maccabiah in 1935, Rivka Rabinowitz recalled joining a procession from the Herzliya Gymnasium along the beach to a stadium at the Yarkon estuary, in an area she remembered as empty sand dunes.[4]

The Third Maccabiah began on September 27, 1950, in a much larger, 50,000-seat stadium in Ramat Gan.[10] Walla similarly identifies Ramat Gan Stadium as having been built for the Third Maccabiah and as the venue that displaced the original Tel Aviv ground from its national role.[5] The Jewish Virtual Library identifies the National Stadium in Ramat Gan as the site of Maccabiah opening ceremonies.[11] Walla records 30,000 spectators at the 1961 opening ceremony and 50,000 at the 1977 ceremony there, reflecting the greater scale of the Ramat Gan venue.[6]

Beyond Maccabiah events, the Tel Aviv stadium hosted decades of football. Maccabi Tel Aviv, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Beitar Tel Aviv, and Bnei Yehuda played there at various times.[3] The grounds also hosted local, inter-city, and international matches.[12]

Wind off the Mediterranean was a persistent problem. It affected athletics competitions to the point that a series of records set at the stadium were disqualified.[3] Exposure to sea winds also eroded the concrete stands. The 5,000 seats, constructed as long bench-style rows, were considered at risk of collapse, which was the principal reason given for closing the stadium to competitive matches in 1969.[5] Maccabi Tel Aviv had won the league championship at the ground in 1968.[5]

After the closure, Maccabi Tel Aviv continued using the stadium for training.[5] During one training match, held while the club was presenting Uruguayan player Elkir Silva, a stand collapsed in front of thousands of spectators, but no fatalities were reported.[5] Maccabi Tel Aviv moved its training permanently to Kiryat Shalom in the early 1990s, after which the grounds stood largely abandoned.[5]

The 33-dunam complex in northern Tel Aviv had a layered ownership and lease history. According to the Tel Aviv municipality's account in a 2004 lawsuit, the Mandate government owned the land and leased it to the municipality, which in turn leased the grounds to the Maccabi organization in 1932 for a limited term.[12] Ownership later passed to the State of Israel, and Atarim, a municipal development company, expropriated the complex in 1973.[12] The municipality also alleged that Maccabi agreed in 1978 to vacate by July 1980 in exchange for compensation. Globes noted that Maccabi had not filed a defense when the report was published.[12]

The stadium was demolished in 2012.[3] By 2022, a Tel Aviv Port parking lot and a playground occupied the former site.[5]

Elsewhere along the Yarkon River, a major tragedy occurred during the opening of the 15th Maccabiah Games. On July 14, 1997, a temporary bridge leading toward Ramat Gan Stadium collapsed as members of the Australian delegation were crossing it.[13]

The Knesset's Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry recorded that approximately 45,000 spectators were already inside the stadium when the bridge gave way a few minutes before 8 p.m.[13] Most of the 373-member Australian delegation and several members of the 51-member Austrian delegation fell into the river. Four Australians—Yetty Bennett, Gregg Small, Elizabeth Sawicki, and Warren Zines—died, and 69 sportspeople were injured.[13]

Following the collapse, organizers shortened the opening ceremony from its planned two and a half hours to approximately 50 minutes. Fireworks and other celebratory elements were removed, while the ceremony's Zionist-Jewish components were retained. The commission concluded that continuing in a truncated form was the best available decision under the circumstances, partly because abruptly stopping the event could have caused panic or obstructed rescue and evacuation efforts.[13]

Several details about the stadium and the First Maccabiah are reported inconsistently. The Central Zionist Archives gives 390 athletes from 18 countries on its overview page but 21 countries on a separate timeline entry.[2][8] World Jewish Congress accounts give 14 and 22 countries, while Encyclopedia.com gives 23.[7][4]

Original capacity figures also differ. The Central Zionist Archives records 5,000 seats and 1,500 standing places.[2] Walla reports 5,000 seats and standing room for 15,000, whereas Ynet gives 500 seats and the same standing capacity.[6][1] These figures are therefore best presented as conflicting reported estimates rather than as a single settled capacity.