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.
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