MEO Arena

You’re in front of MEO Arena, a building that looks—at first glance—like it belongs to a science-fiction sketch, yet its origin story is tightly rooted in a very practical problem: Expo ’98 needed a venue large enough for world-scale entertainment, congresses, and elite indoor sport, but Lisbon and Portugal lacked a facility that could do all of it.

From Expo gap to national landmark

The plan for a multipurpose arena in Lisbon began with the early discussions of the Expo ’98 Master Plan. At the time, existing indoor venues topped out at capacities of around 4,000 people, and even when they were large enough, they were hard to adapt for non-standard events such as world-class indoor competitions. There was also a technical gap—modern concert production, stage logistics, and proper live TV coverage demanded infrastructure the older halls simply didn’t have. The solution was Pavilhão Atlântico, built within the Expo ’98 master plan for the very reason of filling that national “middle space” between smaller indoor arenas and open-air stadia. Construction began in 1996, and the arena entered Expo life in 1998 for Expo ’98, where it was called the Pavilion of Utopia.