MEXICO
Estadio Azteca will undergo only a partial renovation to prepare for the 2026 World Cup
The Mexican authorities cannot reach an agreement with the neighbours in the area and the renovation will be halted.
Due to disputes with the neighbours, the Estadio Azteca will now not undergo a full renovation as planned ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
There are around 1,000 days to go until the FIFA World Cup arrives in Mexico, the USA and Canada; in the southernmost country of the three, there will be a trio of stadiums that will host games, with Esttadio Azteca one of them.
Which Mexican stadiums will host games at the 2026 World Cup?
The Akron Stadium in Zapopan, Jalisco, the BBVA in Guadalupe, Nuevo León, and the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City will be the three locations for the tournament on Mexican soil: the first two are fairly new venues, but the Azteca is close to 60, and a face lift is long overdue.
However, it seems that the renovations will not be as extensive as was originally planned, as neighbours in the surrounding area have complained about the project. A while ago, news filtered out that there would changes to the Azteca with a view to making it more suitable to host World Cup fixtures, and that not just the ground but the outside area would succumb to change.
Neighbours reject proposals for new plans
This decision, however, has involved the neighbours who are against the plans, and an agreement over a compromise has not been reached. On the Mexican radio channel, Radiópolis, it was announced that the agreement had not been sealed between the two parties and as such, the face lift that the stadium and the surrounding area were to receive will not go ahead as planned, instead only minimal work will be done on the stadium itself as not to annoy the neighbours.
The short turnaround, just around a year and a half, means that the work that was originally planned can no longer be carried out.
What is the record attendance at the Estadio Azteca?
The Estadio Azteca was opened in 1966 and nowadays is designed to hold over 87,500 people inside. However, the record attendance for a football match at the ground, one of the most famous in the world, is 119, 853. The record came back on 7 July 1968, when Mexico took on Brazil. For any sporting event the maximum attendance was actually 132,000, when Julio César Chávez fought Greg Haugen in a boxing match in 1993.
Estadio Azteca renovation schedule:
The works is set to start at the beginning of 2024 and finish in the summer of 2025. The stadium will not be closed for games and Liga MX matches will still be played despite the building improvements taking place. Features such as bathrooms, ramps, access points, parking and executive boxes will all be redesigned and renovated, as well as the ways into the stadium.