LALIGA SANTANDER
A rough guide to LaLiga stadia
From Athletic Club to Villarreal, a detailed look (in six parts) at all twenty clubs in the Spanish top flight and a look at their respective football grounds.
The economic divide between the clubs that compose Spain's top flight can be reflected in each club's stadium with many of the grounds in Spain's top flight not actually owned by the clubs with only FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Real Betis, Sevilla, Atlético Madrid, Valencia and Espanyol being proprietors of their grounds with the new San Mamés being a public/private venture. Only three have stadia been constructed in the twenty-first century with many clubs opting to making recent improvements such has been the case with Villarreal and Eibar.
At present no Spanish ground currently features corporate branding as part of it's name but that is all set to change as of next season when Atletico Madrid move from the Vicente Calderon to the new Wanda Metropolitano stadium located in the San Blas district of the Spanish capital.
Third in Europe
LaLiga is ranked third in terms of attendance levels in Europe with an average of 38.000 supporters. Capacities range from 99.354 at Barça's Camp Nou to Eibar's compact Ipurua stadium with a recently increased capacity of now 6.300.
In the first of six articles we look at each ground (alphabetically) in LaLiga:
Alavés
Mendizorroza was opened on April 27 (1924) and is currently the third oldest ground in LaLiga. The current capacity of the ground is of 19.840 spectators and has been redeveloped on three occasions with the major overhaul coming in 1998/1999 as the side from the Basque capital sealed top flight football. Deportivo Alavés have been working on a new development plan that would see the capacity increase to house 32.000 supporters.
Athletic Club
The new San Mamés is regarded as one of the finest grounds in Spain and indeed will host four games during Euro 2020. The old San Mamés (opened in 1913) was known as affectionately as ‘La Catedral’ and the new ground is build on the same site as the old stadium at the end of the famous Calle Pozas street. With a capacity of 53.000 seats, the new stadium which was inaugurated on 16 September 2013 also houses a commercial area, restaurant and cafeteria along with meeting and conference rooms and the club's museum.
Atlético Madrid
The current season is the last that Vicente Calderón will host football as Atlético Madrid will move to a new ground in the San Blas area of the city for the 2017/18 campaign. The Calderon was inaugutrated bin October 2nd 1966 and has a current capacity 54.907. It was a key stadium in the 1982 Spanish World Cup and hosted numerous rock concerts (U2, Rolling Stones, Guns n Roses) and has been given the UEFA five star tagging. The curtain will come down at the end of the season and the Calderon is cited to become a future housing complex as "Los Rojiblancos" move to the currently under construction Wanda Metropolitano which when ready will house 67.000 spectators.
