AFAS Dome

Around 1930, plans were drawn up for a covered cycling track near Antwerp, intended to be the largest indoor track in Europe. Construction began on 11 January 1932 and lasted exactly twenty months: the building was completed on 11 September 1933.

Under the stands was a wooden cycling track 250 metres long and 8 metres wide, which hosted the Antwerp Six-Day from 1934 to 1994. In the 1950s, several boxing matches took place there, followed later by events including the 1969 UCI Track Cycling World Championships and international tennis tournaments.

The venue was severely damaged during the Second World War: more than 220 shells and artillery rounds struck the building, rendering the cycling track unusable. The high repair costs prompted the operators to establish a broad programme of shows and spectacles alongside sports.

In September 2025, the name Sportpaleis was replaced by AFAS Dome. The venue is operated by be•at, formerly Sportpaleis Group, which has been part of Live Nation Entertainment since 2022.

The building was designed by architect Albert Herent and was considered an architectural marvel when completed in 1933. The main hall measures 88 by 132 metres and has an 11,600-square-metre free-span roof, meaning it has no supporting columns.

The hall was built in an elliptical shape and has two floors, with numbered blocks and zones indicated by colour codes. Between 2011 and 2013, the cycling track was demolished, the gradient of the stands was reduced, and the circulation routes were improved in a renovation costing approximately 20 million euros.

Originally, the venue had 13,400 seats, plus 1,780 seats and up to 5,000 standing places on the central floor, for a maximum total of 18,400. After the renovations, the capacity is 23,001 seats and standing places.

The view of the central floor is good from both the upper galleries and the ground floor, and the venue allows for various layouts depending on the event. As a result, the central floor can be arranged either as a standing area or with stands around a ring.

For almost a century, the Sportpaleis has been Belgium’s largest venue for public events, from the Six Days of Antwerp and boxing matches in the 1950s to the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

Directly next to the arena is the Lotto Arena, a smaller venue for up to 8,050 spectators that has been in use since March 2007 and serves as an extension of the main building.