Featured image credit: State of Veracruz
Veracruz officials have revealed plans to renovate the Estadio Luis ‘Pirata’ Fuente in an effort to return top-class football to the Mexican state.
The stadium, located in the city of Boca del Río, has mainly lain dormant since Club Deportivo Veracruz was removed from Liga MX by the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) in December 2019 due to financial reasons.
However, the Governor of Veracruz, Cuitláhuac García Jiménez, has now revealed an investment of more than MXN400m (£17.8m/€20m/$21.4m) as part of the first phase of efforts to breathe new life into the Luis ‘Pirata’ Fuente.
This work is expected to be completed by October, focusing on bringing the stands and pitch up to a standard to accommodate a new club. Capacity is expected to reduce by around 10,000 to 27,500 through the installation of new seats on previous terraces, along with the addition of corporate boxes. This work has also been carried out as the stadium is currently deemed to have serious structural problems.
A new club will not bear the name of the previous incarnation, Tiburones Rojos, or red sharks, and is instead set to honour its home state. José Luis Lima Franco, head of Veracruz’s Ministry of Finance and Planning, said that in the short term the plan is for a second-tier Liga de Expansión MX team, adding that talks are being held with businessmen and the FMF.
He added that the project was originally made possible through a health programme focused on sport, but now has wider ambitions. Franco told the Mediotiempo website: “It was not under that objective, but taking advantage of the fact that the rehabilitation will be carried out, to see the possibility that soccer will return to Veracruz, and they have been talking.
“Several businessmen have been interested in bringing soccer to Veracruz. It is an issue that depends on the businessmen and the FMF. It has been proposed for the Liga de Expansión, but that issue will have to do with the FMF and on our part, we need to deliver the stadium on loan to businessmen who could bring soccer back to Veracruz.”
He added: “It is a building, it is a public good, a state sports structure and it had to be maintained otherwise it could fall. That was the first element for which it was decided to remodel it, not to lose a public good.”
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