The 2027 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, may not be headlined at Duna Arena, widely considered one of the finest permanent aquatics facilities in the world. First reported by Alex Pussieldi on X, swimming and water polo may be headed to the MVM Dome, Europe’s largest handball arena.
World Aquatics says that the venue is under consideration, but that the decision is not yet finalized.
The recently built MVM Dome, a multi-purpose arena that opened in 2022 to host the European handball Championships, with over 30,000 seats, would play host to both swimming and water polo. The Duna Arena, a 5,000-seat venue for swimming that opened in 2017, would still be in use, housing artistic swimming and diving.
Alfréd Hajós National Swimming Stadium on Margaret Island has long played host to Hungary’s rich water polo tradition, which would be held at the MVM Dome.
In recent years, organizers of World Championships have opted to construct temporary pools inside large arenas or stadiums. Singapore in 2025 is a notable exception where the entirety of the arena was temporary, but recent editions, such as Paris 2024 and several in the past decade, have been heavily reliant on temporary venues, such as Doha in 2024 and Fukuoka in 2023.
This will be the third time in just over a decade that Budapest has hosted the World Aquatics Championships, following 2017 and the relocated edition in 2022.
The Duna Arena was built specifically for the 2017 Worlds, and has since become a regular fixture in the international swimming landscape, hosting the European Championships in 2020 and World Cup events in 2018, 2019, and 2021 since then. Its potential absence from the centerpiece of the 2027 meet is noteworthy, as the facility has for years had a reputation among swimmers as one of the best racing pools in the world.
Please don’t. Duna Arena is literally one of the fastest pools in the World.
Expensive to put a temporary pool in an arena when you already have one of the best aquatic centres in the world. I love to see countries invest in swimming but where does Hungary keep finding the money to host?
I’m wondering that as well. Hungarian economy is in absolute shambles since 2020 and it keeps getting worse.
“…Singapore in 2025 is a notable exception of an edition planned in an existing world-class facility…”
It was a temporary pool and facility.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/sport/world-aquatics-championships-team-singapore-swimming-facility-kallang-temporary-5230561
Myrtha Pools uploaded on their YouTube channel their whole process of building the 2 pools (competition+warmup) from scratch.
Whatever, just make sure pool is 3m
We have used temp pools at both Paris and Singapore. Tell me, were they fast as you thought they were?
Singapore wasn’t a temp pool. And Paris was slower because they didn’t build a 3m pull for some reason. Indy was a temp in a big arena that was plenty fast because it was built to standard spec.
Singapore was a temp pool. The diving was in the (permanent) Aquatics Centre. The swimming was in the “World Aquatics Arena”, a temp facility built in a car park which will be taken down post-event.
Fukuoka and US Olympic trials were temporary too. Only Paris was slow.
30,000 fans at World Champs would be electric
Doubt they get that many. Hope so tho
I’m thinking 240