Mayor of Madrid José Luis Martínez-Almeida has announced today (Tuesday) that the City Council will give the green light to a new sports city project surrounding the Wanda Metropolitano, home of LaLiga football club Atlético de Madrid.
The council is currently processing an initiative put forward by Atlético which proposes that five plots of land near the stadium be transferred to the club for a period of 75 years, with three of the plots to be part of the sports city. Atlético also plans on building public sports facilities on two other plots near the stadium.
According to the council, the proposal put forward by Atlético includes the construction of six football pitches that would serve as the base for a new training facility for the club’s first team, reserve team and youth teams.
The proposal also includes a 6,000-seat mini stadium for its reserve team, 25 padel courts, a climbing wall, a surfing area and a skateboarding space. Commercial and hotel space also forms part of the wide-ranging project, which would be financed by the club.
The council said the agreement is currently being processed and will be signed in the coming weeks. The project is designed to breathe new life into land that is currently underused and provide local residents with an outlet to partake in a wide range of sports.
The council did not disclose financial details of the project, but Spanish sport business website 2Playbook.com reported that Atlético will invest more than €200m (£172m/$205m). It is hoped that work on the project, which would be partially funded by the LaLiga Impulso venture, can begin by the end of the year.
The Wanda Metropolitano opened in 2017 and was built on the site of the former Estadio Olímpico de Madrid. The old stadium had formed part of Madrid’s unsuccessful bid to stage the 2016 Olympic Games and closed down in 2004.
Reports in Spain over the past few days have claimed that Atlético is close to agreeing a deal with property developer Civitas Pacensis to replace Wanda as the naming-rights sponsor of the Metropolitano. Chinese conglomerate Wanda has sponsored the stadium since it opened but its deal expired at the end of last season.
Image: Jose A./CC BY 2.0/Edited for size
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