On Tuesday, World Aquatics and the Budapest 2027 Organizing Committee officially confirmed the MVM Dome as the swimming venue for the 2027 World Aquatics Championships.
The meet, which will run from Jun 26 – July 28, 2025, will be the fourth time Budapest has hosted a World Championships meet over the last nine years. They first hosted in 2017, then they stepped in to host the 2022 meet after the Fukuoka Worlds were postponed. Last December, they also hosted the 2024 Short Course World Championships.
Previously, these meets have been hosted at The Duna Arena, which is widely considered one of the fastest natatoriums in the world with 27 current world records being established in the pool (six LC, 21 SC). In total 62 World Records have been set in the facility over the last seven years, the 2nd most of any pool in history.
The only pool that has seen more World Records is Rome’s Foro Italico, which was the location of the infamous 2009 World Championships, the last meet where super-suits were allowed.
The MVM Dome has never hosted an international swimming competition, but it hosted the European handball Championships in 2022, and seats more than 30,000 people (though the release only indicates 10,000 seats for spectators). The Duna Arena, by comparison, only holds 5,000.
The Duna Arena will still be utilized at the meet, with World Aquatics confirming today that while swimming and water polo will both occur in the MVM Dome, artistic swimming and diving will utilize Duna.
Government commissioner for the World Aquatics Championships and Co-Chair of the Budapest 2027 Organizing Committee, Dr. Adam Schmidt, said, “New opportunities have opened up now that we have several world-class sports facilities allowing us to plan with a much broader portfolio of venues. Thanks to the MVM Dome, we can ensure that around ten thousand fans can cheer on the world’s best swimmers and water polo players on site.”
The MVM Dome, which is multifunctional, will feature two temporary pools including a competition pool inside the arena and a training pool directly outside for the athletes.
This follows the trend we have seen in recent years of temporary facilities being constructed inside larger arenas to host these meets, optimizing seating options for fans. The Paris 2024 Olympics, the Doha 2024 World Championships, and the Fukuoka 2023 World Championships were all held in arenas with a temporary pool.
It says that there is 1 indoor competition pool for Masters World Championship
Surely 2 would be required
Anything is better than dealing with ticketing arranged by European Aquatics for this coming summer.
The seating capacity of the MVM Dome is 20,028. Due to the pool, the lower rows of seats are pushed under the stands. This leaves approximately 12,000 seats.
I like the additional capacity. Singapore was sold out on the final evening for relays