Images: Juanma Moreno
Seville’s La Cartuja Stadium is set to complete its transformation into becoming Spain’s third biggest stadium after confirming the lead contractor for the project.
Estadio La Cartuja de Sevilla, which operates the multi-purpose venue, has awarded the contract to Seville-headquartered Heliopol. The contractor, which is part of the Rusvel business group, will complete the work within a six-month period that will conclude towards the end of March 2025.
Heliopol will increase the venue’s capacity from 57,000 to just over 70,000, with up to 75,000 available for concerts. The $15m project will see the venue’s athletics track removed, lowering the level of the pitch and bringing the stands closer to the playing field.
La Cartuja will be a temporary home for both Seville’s LaLiga teams, Real Betis Balompié and Sevilla, in the coming years as they complete redevelopment projects at their own stadiums. The venue is also in the running to host games at the 2030 FIFA World Cup, and officials have stated they would ultimately like it to become Spain’s national stadium.
Patricia del Pozo, Andalusia’s Minister for Culture and Sport, said: “The expansion of the capacity of the La Cartuja Stadium is a strategic commitment by the Government of Juanma Moreno, which has turned a stadium that was going to be declared in technical ruin by the PSOE into a reference among the great sports venues in Spain.”
La Cartuja’s ups and downs
Expansion to 75,000 seats would make La Cartuja the third largest stadium in Spain, behind Spotify Camp Nou in Barcelona and Estadio Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid.
The stadium opened in May 1999 for Seville’s staging of the World Athletics Championships before closing in 2018 after the local authorities determined that its roof required costly renovation work. The necessary work was subsequently carried out and in February 2020 a deal was struck with the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) for hosting rights to four editions of the Copa del Rey final, a contract that is currently in place until at least 2024.
La Cartuja also ended up hosting matches at the rescheduled UEFA Euro 2020 national team tournament after Bilbao was forced to withdraw due to uncertainties regarding fan attendance, while it is on the shortlist of Spanish venues for the joint hosting of the 2030 FIFA World Cup with Portugal and Morocco.
La Cartuja has also been lined up as a temporary home for Real Betis for two seasons from 2024-25, as the LaLiga club redevelops Estadio Benito Villamarín. Sevilla is set to use La Cartuja from 2026-28 as it builds the Nuevo Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán.
In June 2023, the RFEF presented a plan to build a new stadium that would serve as the home of the Spanish national team. Former RFEF president, Luis Rubiales, revealed that the idea drawn up by the governing body’s board of directors proposed a stadium with a capacity of between 30,000 and 40,000.
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