Metropolitano Stadium
Metropolitano Stadium, also referred to as Wanda Metropolitano for sponsorship reasons, is a stadium in Madrid, Spain. It has been the home stadium of Atlético Madrid since the 2017–18 season. It is located in Rosas neighbourhood in the San Blas-Canillejas district.
The stadium was built as part of Madrid's unsuccessful bid to host the 1997 World Athletics Championships, and was opened on 6 September 1994 by the Community of Madrid. It was closed in 2004 due to the city's bid for the 2016 Olympics and in 2013 it was passed into the possession of Atlético Madrid. The stadium was renovated and the new facility was reopened to the public on 16 September 2017, when Atlético Madrid faced Málaga CF in La Liga. The stadium had a capacity of 20,000 spectators upon its closure and re-opened with a seating capacity of 68,456 after renovation. The stadium is home to Atlético Madrid's first team matches. Atlético Madrid offered Wanda Metropolitano as a permanent venue for the finals of the Spanish Copa del Rey matches. The stadium hosted the 2019 UEFA Champions League Final on 1 June 2019.
Name
The stadium was formerly known as Estadio de la Comunidad de Madrid, Estadio Olímpico de Madrid, and more commonly by its nickname Estadio de La Peineta. Naming rights were acquired by the Wanda Group, a Chinese real estate company. Due to UEFA sponsorship regulations the stadium is known as Estadio Metropolitano in UEFA marketing materials.History
During the early 1990s the Sports Council of the Community of Madrid promoted the city's bid to host the World Athletics Championships in 1997, and preparations began for an Olympic stadium in the east of Madrid, next to the M-40 motorway. The site was expected to be heavily urbanized.Construction of the new stadium began in 1990 and was based on a design proposed by Cruz y Ortiz. It was completed in 1993, and the inauguration took place in September 1994. The single side tier oval shaped stadium with a capacity 20,000 seats became known as La Peineta because of its similarity with the traditional Spanish hair comb.
The 1997 World Championships in Athletics were eventually awarded to Athens, and La Peineta was used for minor sports and cultural events during the first decade of its existence.
New stadium
In 2004, the stadium was closed for a future project upon the Madrid bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Following the defeat of Madrid's bid in 2009, many proposals were made for the future use of the stadium. Finally, on 11 September 2013, Atlético Madrid announced their plans to build a stadium on the location of La Peineta. Thus ownership was officially transferred to the club.The new stadium was scheduled to replace Vicente Calderón Stadium as Atletico's home since the 2017–18 season. On 9 December 2016, the club announced that the renovated stadium's official name would be Wanda Metropolitano – Wanda for sponsorship reasons and Metropolitano after the 1923–1966 arena which hosted Atlético's matches before Vicente Calderón. As of 15 April 2017, around 48,500 season tickets had been reserved by the club fans.
On 17 September 2017, the Wanda Metropolitano's inaugural event was a 2017–18 La Liga match between Atlético Madrid and Málaga CF. King Felipe VI of Spain attended the match. Atlético's Antoine Griezmann would go on to score the first goal at the new stadium, in which the match ended in a 1–0 win for Atlético. On 27 September 2017, the Metropolitano hosted its first European game as Chelsea beat Atlético Madrid 2–1 and became the first English club to defeat them at home in any European club competition, as well as the first visiting team to win at the new stadium.
It accommodates 68,000 spectators, with all spectator seats covered by a new roof including 7,000 VIP, 79 VIP suites known as Neptuno Premium. 4,000 car parking spaces is available; 1,000 inside the stadium building and 3,000 outside the building.
Notable events
La Peineta hosted the second leg of the 1996 Supercopa de España on 28 August, with Atlético beating FC Barcelona 3–1 on the night but losing 6–5 on aggregate.During the 1997–98 Segunda División season, Madrid-based club Rayo Vallecano played some home matches at La Peineta, due to renovation works on its stadium, the Campo de Fútbol de Vallecas.
On 21–22 September 2002, La Peineta hosted the 9th IAAF World Cup, an international track and field sporting event sponsored by the International Association of Athletics Federations.
On 20 September 2017, shortly after the inauguration of the stadium, it was selected by UEFA to host the final match of the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League. The other selected nominee was the Baku National Stadium in Azerbaijan, which will hold the 2018-19 UEFA Europa League final. This is the fifth European Cup/UEFA Champions League final held in Madrid, after the 1957, 1969, 1980, and 2010 finals, all held at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium of Atlético's cross-town rival Real Madrid C.F.
On 27 March 2018, the stadium hosted the Spain national football team for the first time for a friendly against Argentina national football team, a 6–1 win.
On 21 April 2018, it hosted the 2018 Copa del Rey Final between Sevilla and Barcelona. Barcelona won the game with a final score of 5–0. During the game Andrés Iniesta was substituted under a standing ovation by the fans since it was his last final with Barcelona.
On 17 March 2019, Metropolitano hosted the Spanish women's league match between Atlético Madrid and Barcelona, with 60,739 spectators attending to the match, thus beating the worldwide record for a women's football match between clubs.
On 1 June 2019, the stadium hosted the 2019 UEFA Champions League Final between Tottenham Hotspur F.C. and Liverpool F.C. in which Klopp’s side Liverpool defeated Spurs 2–0.
Transport and access
, the Ministry of Public Works and Transport and Atletico Madrid signed an agreement with the aim of building the necessary infrastructure for access to the stadium. The first phase of the works is planned to be done before the opening of the stadium, these works are the new entrance from the M-40 towards Avenida Luis Aragonés, the braiding link between the Eisenhower Knot and the stadium service road, and the improvement of the entrance by the Arcentales Avenue, and the construction of a second vestibule and access for the current existing Estadio Metropolitano Metro station. These infrastructures will be paid by the club for a figure close to 30 million euros.The second will be held later, after the inauguration. The announcement from Ministry of Public Works and Transort of the opening of the O'Donnell Cercanías Madrid station, converting the existing stop -where no train makes stops- into a new station for the neighborhood of Rejas. The station would be located at the intersection of the M-21 dual carriageway and M-40 highway, close to Ciudad Pegaso and Plenilunio Shopping Center, near to the new Atletico Madrid stadium.
In the section of public transport the City Council continues in talks with the Spanish Ministry of Public Works and Transport and the Community of Madrid to continue improving access to the new stadium and adapt mobility to the substantial increase that will be submitted the neighborhood once operational the new stadium. The measures proposed by the municipality of Madrid are the request to extend line 2 of Metro to the future Cercanías Madrid station of O'Donnell, as well as the connection of said line 2 to line 7 current Estadio Metropolitano Metro station which has the largest platform of the network.
There are three more Metro stations close to the stadium, two to 20 minutes walk: Las Rosas, Canillejas, and Las Musas, which is 10 minutes walk to the stadium.
The buses actual lines of EMT Madrid with a stop close to the stadium are: 28, 38, 48, 140, 153, E2, N5 and N6;. Long-distance lines: 286, 288 and 289. The EMT operates a special service the match days with one line that starts from the Canillejas exchanger to the stadium, Canillejas has connection to Metro line 5 and EMT bus lines 77, 101, 140, 151 and 200.