section_path: Sports
section_name: Sports
paragraph_text: Sports
  
  Until the beginning of the 19th century, sports such as horse riding (polo in particular), wrestling, boxing, and marksmanship were the most popular city sports. Influence from the Russian Empire introduced more Western sports and activities (such as billiards and fencing) to Tbilisi.
  
  The Soviet period further popularised European and American sports. Tbilisi developed an extensive infrastructure for professional sports, and by 1978, the city had around 250 sports facilities, including four indoor and six outdoor Olympic-sized pools, 185 basketball courts, 192 volleyball facilities, 82 handball arenas, 19 tennis courts, 31 football fields, and five stadiums. The largest stadium is the Dinamo Arena (capacity 55,000), followed by the Mikheil Meskhi Stadium (capacity 24,680). The Sports Palace hosts basketball games and tennis tournaments, with a seating capacity of about 11,000. Vere Basketball Hall is a smaller indoor sports arena seating 2,500.
  
  Football is the most popular sport in Tbilisi, followed by rugby union and basketball. Other popular sports include wrestling, tennis, swimming, and water polo.
  
  Tbilisi has several professional football and rugby teams, as well as wrestling clubs. Two U.S. National Basketball Association players, Zaza Pachulia and Nikoloz Tskitishvili, are Tbilisi natives.
  
  Tbilisi's signature football club, Dinamo Tbilisi, won the 1980–81 European Cup Winners' Cup, becoming the easternmost team to win a major European football tournament. The basketball club Dinamo Tbilisi also won the 1962 EuroLeague title.
  
  Tbilisi co-hosted Group A matches of the EuroBasket 2022 tournament at the new 10,000-seat Tbilisi Arena, along with Czech Republic (Prague), Germany (Berlin, Cologne), and Italy (Milan).