Having your own stadium is a dream for any team. Many have tried, but very few have brought the project to a successful conclusion.
In Colombia, the only one that has it is Deportivo Cali, while in South America there are several clubs that give themselves that luxury (see To know more), such as in Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay.
The issue became relevant again in our country and particularly in Antioquia after the recent inconveniences that the teams have had to use their usual home, the Atanasio Girardot stadium, for the concerts that have been held in this venue.
According to calculations by the president of Independiente Medellín, Daniel Ossa, the “exile” in the South American Cup by having to play in Pereira caused the institution to have losses close to $4,500 million and it is likely that they will rise worryingly if the situation repeats itself.
Despite the difficulties involved in having to be subject to the agenda that the Mayor’s Office has for Atanasio, in the DIM they make it clear that they have not thought about the possibility of having their own stadium. With the current leaders of Nacional it was not possible to have a concept in this regard.
calli, example
As for the cast of sugar, the process began in 1999 when a group of promoter investors invited them to a meeting, in which the project was shared with them.
“At that time, the company Palcos y Suit made us the proposal hand in hand with the Bitterri brothers, architects, who had built two stadiums in Guayaquil and one in Lima. That was new for us, but we traveled and met them, “he said in dialogue with EL COLOMBIANO Luis Fernando Ordóñez, vice president of the sugar team between 1996 and 2004.
Precisely, Ordóñez and Álex Gorayeb, also a director of the club, had traveled to Spain at the end of the 70s to visit the Camp Nou, a venue owned by Barcelona. Since then in the Sultana del Valle they already had the illusion that the green and white would have a stadium.
According to the manager, the project had its detractors, but the board of directors took a risk to defend it and after many meetings it was approved. The idea was then shared with the partners, who at first found many buts. “The convincing process was long, it lasted until 2000. After a thousand battles, we managed to get between 80 and 85% of the partners to approve it,” he recalled.
Cali as an institution put up a total of $25,000 million, but the great investment was made by the partners who bought the suite and kept 35%. Now the sugar family enjoys its stage. The sale of the 850 suits it has contributed to making the project economically viable.
next steps
For Víctor Marulanda, a stadium is viable “but with associated business models. If it is simply going to be for football matches, it is complex to find a return on investment”.
The man from Antioquia, who has fulfilled several managerial roles in Atlético Nacional, in which he repeatedly analyzed the possibility of having his own stadium (see box), explains that there are many aspects that must be taken into account when thinking about building a structure of these dimensions.
“You have to take into account the Territorial Development Plan that the cities have. In our case, Medellín, a good location for a sports venue is complex”.
Despite the difficulties that this construction would entail, Marulanda believes that out of a sense of belonging, institutions should have their own stadium and build a good business model within it.
Is worth?
The former directors of Deportivo Cali have different positions regarding the convenience or not of building a stadium.
For Álvaro Martínez, president of this club between 2014 and 2017 and who values the work that Humberto Arias previously carried out in this position, it is worth risking it with a project of this nature, since it is now the most valuable asset of the institution.
“A big team must have its stadium. If you analyze, in South America we have the big casts. Here there are clubs with more titles than us and they haven’t been able to do it. I think that these are efforts that must be made,” argued Martínez.
But Ordóñez, who is also an engineer, does not recommend another Colombian club to embark on this idea: “I cannot do it because the legal and financial problems of something of this nature are not so easy to solve. Us because we have a great infrastructure of partners that allowed us to make a pre-sale. But this is something of a magnitude, because they were almost ten years of camel and a lot of suffering “
75
million dollars was the cost of the Cali stadium. Capacity: 44 thousand people.
