Atletico Madrid’s mythical Estadio Vicente Calderon will soon be history, sad news for supporters of Real Madrid’s rivals, but not so for locals who hope the neighborhood will improve once noisy fans are gone.
This weekend spells the end for the aging structure that for more than 50 years has housed Atletico — not as well known abroad as the world-famous Real Madrid, despite fielding players like French star Antoine Griezmann, but with a huge following in the Spanish capital.
Fans were to watch the Copa del Rey final between Barcelona and Deportivo Alaves yesterday and a charitable match today.
Photo: AFP
Next year, the stadium that stands on the shores of the Manzanares River in southern Madrid, surrounded by blocks of apartments and cheap cafeterias, is to be razed.
“I’ve been a member since the 2001-2002 season, when the Atletico was in second division,” said Oscar Fernandez, 23, standing near the stadium in Madrid’s Imperial District.
Wearing the red-and-white shirt of a club who have since risen back to dizzying heights, winning the La Liga in 2014 and reaching Champions League finals in 2014 and last year, Fernandez said he lives in Rome, but returned expressly to see the finals at the Vicente Calderon.
Photo: AFP
The stadium “is part of my life,” he said.
From next season, Atletico — who finished third in La Liga this year — will play on the other side of the Spanish capital, at a stadium called the Wanda Metropolitano.
Still in construction, it has capacity for 70,000 people, 15,000 more than the Calderon.
However, fans are hugely attached to the worn stadium, under which passes a ring-road that circles Madrid, where Atletico played for the first time on October 2, 1966.
Javier Fischer, 30, is so nostalgic that he has reserved three stadium seats to take away as souvenirs, one of them in memory of his father, who died a year ago.
On Sunday last week, he was there for Atletico’s final La Liga game in the Calderon — “the saddest day ever here,” he said, despite his team’s 3-1 victory over Athletic Bilbao.
Standing in front of the club’s office, Valentin Hernandez agreed with Fischer, but he also acknowledges that “the Calderon was too small.”
“Atletico needs to change with the times, like the big European teams,” Hernandez said.
To help finance the stadium, the club sold the naming rights to China’s multinational Wanda Group, which also owns 20 percent of the club.
With help from Wanda and the increase in capacity, Atletico hopes to increase their annual budget from 280 million euros to 400 million euros (US$313 million to US$447 million) in the 2019-2020 season.
By so doing, they hope to close the gap with Barcelona and Real Madrid, who made more than 600 million euros apiece this season.
Still, the new stadium in the San Blas District is in a remote area in eastern Madrid, far from southern parts of the capital that traditionally support Atletico more than Real Madrid.
And the 60 million euro cost of the stadium also has supporters up in arms.
They worry that the ensuing debt will stop the club from being able to pay the 80 million euros to 90 million euros needed “to bring first-class players,” said Ricardo Menendez, a journalist for the Atletico-specialized Web site Esto Es Atleti.
However, the mood among locals in Imperial District is much better.
The stadium itself is to be torn down to make way for about 1,300 apartments and a large green space.
Locals hope that the departure of Atletico — and the new homes — will revitalize the neighborhood.
Many are also happy the commotion of fans and match days will now be a thing of the past.
“I’m delighted it’s going,” said Jesus Ferro, 83, complaining about the noise and “filth left” by fans.
Ernesto Ortiz, manager of a hardware store, also said things will be better after Atletico leaves.
“On match days, if there was any repair or maintenance work to do, we couldn’t move around, as the area was so full of vehicles,” he said.
By the time Cameron Menzies finally left the arena on Monday, the blood gushing from the gash on his right hand had trickled down his wrist, part of his forearm and — somehow — up to his face. Smeared in crimson and regret, and already mouthing sheepish apologies to the crowd, he disappeared down the steps, pursued by a stern-looking Matt Porter, the chief executive of Professional Darts Corp (PDC). The physical scars from Menzies’ encounter with the Alexandra Palace drinks table after his 3-2 defeat against Charlie Manby at the Darts World Championship would be gone within a few weeks.
Manchester United on Monday blew the lead three times to miss out on moving up to fifth in the Premier League as AFC Bournemouth would not be beaten in a thrilling 4-4 draw at Old Trafford. United have lost just once in their past 10 games, but Ruben Amorim would be frustrated as more points at home were frittered away despite arguably the best attacking display of his reign in charge. Amad Diallo and Casemiro gave the hosts a halftime lead either side of Antoine Semenyo’s equalizer. Two Bournemouth goals from Evanilson and Marcus Tavernier in seven minutes at the start of the
LOW-GOAL SHOOT-OUT: Of the nine penalties in the shoot-out, only three went in, with Flamengo’s Samuel Lino, and Vitinha and Nuno Mendes of PSG netting Matvei Safonov on Wednesday made four straight penalty saves in a penalty shoot-out to help Paris Saint-Germain beat Flamengo in the Intercontinental Cup final and win a sixth trophy of the year. The Russian goalkeeper was thrown in the air by his teammates after his exploits in the shoot-out, which was won 2-1 by PSG after a 1-1 draw after extra-time. It completed a trophy-laden 12 months for the French team, who had already won the Trophee des Champions, Ligue 1, the Coupe de France, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup — also on penalties against Tottenham Hotspur in
Italian Luca de Aliprandini described Saturday’s World Cup giant slalom at Val d’Isere as the hardest race of his life, coming two days after his Swiss partner Michelle Gisin suffered a heavy fall in training which required neck surgery. De Aliprandini finished 26th in the men’s event won by Loic Meillard, but the result paled into insignificance with two-time Olympic ski champion Gisin in hospital with injuries to her wrist, knee and cervical spine (neck). “It was Michelle’s wish that I race here. I couldn’t say no to her, but it was the toughest race of my entire life,” an emotional De
RSS