GMO Arena

The arena provisionally opened on 5 May 2000 and officially on 1 September 2000. Construction cost twenty billion yen. The owner is Saitama Arena Corp.

Since 2001, the venue has hosted a major martial arts event on New Year's Eve, a Japanese tradition. Until 2010, the building also housed the John Lennon Museum and underwent two renovations, in 2015 and 2026.

The design by Dan Meis, who was working at Ellerbe Becket at the time, won an international design competition together with Nikken Sekkei.

The most striking feature is a gigantic movable grandstand section that allows the hall to be shortened. This makes even a smaller event feel intimate rather than lost in an empty hall.

The capacity depends entirely on the configuration: 36,500 at maximum, 27,000 in stadium configuration and 22,500 in arena configuration, with the main hall usually accommodating between 19,000 and 22,500 people.

In addition to martial arts, the venue has hosted basketball, volleyball, tennis, ice hockey and gymnastics, and it is the only Japanese arena specially equipped for American football.

The venue is considered a home of Japanese martial arts. Pride Fighting Championships held events here from 2003 to 2006, followed by Yarennoka in 2007, organized by former Pride staff.

The New Year's Eve galas Dynamite!! followed from 2008 to 2010, featuring bouts from Dream and K-1, and in 2011 Fight For Japan with Dream, K-1, and IGF.