The 2006 FIFA World Cup Football semi-finals are being held in Dortmund, Germany (the sixth largest city in Germany). The city planners are hoping the football games being held here will draw attention to Dortmund. They have erected a huge 15 meter (50 feet) diameter soccer ball 
in a plaza near the center of the city. I found out about this through a recent post at jaunted.com. See it in Google Maps as well.
In late March, Google upgraded to high resolution satellite and aerial photos for all of Germany. The photos in Dortmund are particularly good. You can easily see the elongated shadows of people standing near the soccer ball in the winter sun. I would estimate the resolution is about 4 inches per pixel for this area. Closer inspection of the soccer ball in GE shows steps leading into the structure. I suspect this is actually some sort of museum. Anyone know more about it?
[EDIT: 15:45 – according to the first comment below, they call it the Football Globe and it is a mobile pavilion which “is touring the 12 German FIFA World Cup Host Cities giving visitors an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the topic of football culture in a light-hearted manner that appeals to the emotions.” Read more. Apologies for my Americanism calling it a “soccer ball” instead of a “football”.]
[EDIT: 18:15 – GoogleSightseeing.com points out this is the second largest football since there is one twice its size in Japan.]
About Frank Taylor
Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.
The mobile pavillion is called “football globe”, because it shows a projection of the earth at night on its outside. It is a promotional piece of art touring the twelve german cities hosting the matches of the upcoming World Cup. It features lots of interactive infotainment and serves as a podium for discussions about soccer. I’ve visited the globe two years ago. On http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/o/globe.html you find a link to the website, where you can leave a message – good ones even get integrated into the multimedia show inside the globe.
I don’t know – this ball in Seoul, Korea which is left over from the last World Cup may give it a run for its money! 🙂
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Seoul+Korea&ll=37.56579,126.978264&spn=0.002998,0.006781&t=k&om=1
Mike.
Sorry Mike, the one in Seoul only measures in at about 45 feet in diameter. 🙂
Make google world ball have shaper resolution, where’s the Mac version that is shaper. I use it but it is
not yet up to Mac standards.
Make a Real Time version no?
I see no sence in the statue of a ball. I think you have to be a man to get it.