Author: World of Stadiums

Football club Estudiantes de La Plata from Argentina currently play at the Estadio Ciudad de La Plata. They won the Copa Libertadores, the South American championship for football clubs, in 1968 for the first time in their history. The Estadio Jorge Luis Hirschi, which opened in 1907, had been their home for numerous years. In 2005, the venue was closed down for league games because of new safety regulations. After the closure, the reconstruction works started. The projected opening date was delayed because of financial reasons. Estudiantes de la Plata have confirmed the ability to launch further work at their future home after they secured a loan.

The 33,000-capacity Estadio Azul, the former home of football club Cruz Azul from Mexico, will soon disappear. After the demolition, the stadium will make way for new commercial development. Cruz Azul will play their home games in the Mexican top-flight league at the Estadio Azteca, which is known as the home of their arch-rivals Club América. The world famous stadium hosted two FIFA World Cup finals. The Estadio Azul has been the home of Cruz Azul for numerous years. It will take several years before the new home of Cruz Azul will be ready.

Leicester City Football Club from England does have serious plans to expand the King Power Stadium in Leicester. The 32,000-capacity stadium opened on 23 July 2002. The plan is to increase the capacity of the venue and to upgrade facilities for the stadium itself. There are also plans to invest in the surrounding site to create an exciting events destination for the city of Leicester. Leicester City FC drew an average home attendance of 29,000 in their first league season at the stadium. In 2016, the club surprised when they won the world famous Premier League for the first time in their history.

In 2010, Joseph Blatter announced that Russia was chosen to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup and that Qatar was chosen to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The world championship for national football teams in Russia is scheduled to take place from 14 June to 15 July. The matches will be played in Kaliningrad, Kazan, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Saransk, Sochi, St. Petersburg, Volgograd and Yekaterinburg. Moscow will hosts the final of the tournament and it will be the only city with two 2018 FIFA World Cup venues.

The Cosmos Arena in Samara will be one of the 12 venues for the FIFA World Cup. The stadium failed to be ready in December 2017. Later, it failed to be ready in March. The latest deadline for the opening of the Cosmos Arena is in April, a few weeks before the start of the FIFA World Cup. The future home of football club Krylia Sovetov won’t be completely ready by then, but it will probably meet the minimal requirements to safely hold a game. It will host its first FIFA World Cup match on 17 June 2018, when the national football team of Costa Rica will face Serbia. Australia, Colombia, Denmark, Russia, Senegal and Uruguay will also play one FIFA World Cup group stage match at the stadium.

New York City Football Club from the United States have plans to move to a new stadium with a capacity of 26,000. The costs for building the stadium are estimated at $700 million. It is the sixth proposal for a Major League Soccer stadium in the city of New York. Finding enough land to build a football stadium is very hard in the expensive city. NYCFC are currently playing their home games at the Yankee Stadium. The stadium opened as the home of the New York Yankees, one of the major baseball clubs in the world.

Four years ago, the redevelopment of the home of FC Barcelona from Spain was approved. FC Barcelona, one of the most successful football clubs in the world, have been tenants of the stadium since 1957. The capacity of the venue is currently 99,000. The stadium’s record attendance was set in 1986, when 120,000 spectators showed up for a football match between FC Barcelona and the Italian football club Juventus. The planned renovation works include a larger capacity of 105,000 and a new stadium roof. The devilery date moved to 2023 and it might end up later. The expected costs of the renovation works are €630 million.