Atlético Huila gave his fans a night to remember on the night of Tuesday, November 15, for the great obtaining of the title of the second semester of the B that will give them the illusion of opting for promotion by facing again twice against the Boyacá Chico. A full stadium in what fit inside a sports venue with emergencies and without any solution.
A difficult panorama that Neiva lives with its stadium, Guillermo Plazas Alcid, beginning in 2015 when the works began to remodel the establishment and in reality, everything was chaos ending in tragedies. The workers suffered two accidents in the midst of this restructuring, a wall falling, and steps collapsing. A year later, in 2016, it was the end with a town in the compound collapsing, leaving dead and injured.
The truth is that the Mayor’s Office has tried little or nothing to fix the rubble and the ruin of the Guillermo Plazas Alcid stadium. Before the second final of the BetPlay Tournament at said sports venue, Win Sports interviewed Juan Carlos Patarroyo, president of Atlético Huila, who recounted the series of problems and the solutions they could find in the long term, because the face is still complicated.
Before the match, Daniela Caro asked him about what the club and the Mayor’s Office are trying to do so that Atlético Huila, close to promotion, can offer a better place to its fans, “he started with a very delicate question. Eight years without a decent stadium, we look at the fans, we have very good fans here, it’s a team from the region. Unfortunately the stadium is in ruins. Eight years ago a project began and it has not been completed. Atlético Huila with great efforts has taken on the task of half maintaining it. That is why we are participating, I think with dignity with the desire to promote, but the truth is an issue that I do not see close to the solution, unfortunately because the computers on duty I do not know what has happened. I have no way to tell him that in a year, two years or what will be the end of this so dismal story for our institution”, maintained Juan Carlos Patarroyo.
Additionally, Daniela Caro emphasized to the fans that they could fill the stadium much more if the stage were not so hit, “add to that we must congratulate the enthusiasm of the people. Today we are going to have 6,000 spectators, but if you see the conditions of the stadium as such, we really have to thank them for that effort. There are no parking spaces, no bathrooms, people have to make do with what they have, resign themselves, and yet here they are giving strength to the team. My thanks to all the fans, it is proof that they love him very much and I believe that he deserves a stadium”.
The stage is not saved at all, perhaps in the grass as Juan Carlos Patarroyo later maintained. However, perhaps it is the only thing, because in lighting it was a duty, “because it is also deficient. In 2017, early 2018, Atlético Huila was playing outside because the stage was not suitable and in order to return, Atlético Huila made an investment to potentiate this luminary. This was done by Atlético Huila, because we had the field, some pieces of dressing room, but we lacked lighting. We made the effort and since that time it has been in our hands and let’s say that it almost complies, but surely it does not comply due to the abandonment that our stage has ”.
Finally, Juan Carlos Patarroyo was asked what they should do, or tear down the stands to create a new sports venue with better conditions, or restructure a stadium in ruins, “I am an engineer and my concept and what I know during these years, it is cheaper to build a new stadium. Surely smaller, I believe that Neiva with a stadium of 10,000 spectators would be more than enough and I believe that it is at least 50% cheaper than trying to recover something that is practically in ashes. Ultimately it is an opinion, I am not the one who can somehow give the solution. I do think, and I have stated it many times, I proposed to the municipality that Atlético Huila was in a position to put the land, the design we have for a stadium of 10,000 people and surely the administration for the construction, but it did not have an echo and it was on paper. I think that because of the city and everything, this stage is already out of fashion, I think that the best thing would be another stadium”.
Added to that, a new final question arose about the dream stadium for Juan Carlos Patarroyo, “no, it is a stadium for 10,000 spectators, small, but that meets all the conditions of the FIFA regulations. The regulations basically exist to provide comfort and security for players, managers and fans. For me, it is the most important thing than having a stadium with 40,000, 50,000 people who will hardly fill it. I think that we have had the design for many years, we had the land, but we did not find an echo and let’s say that this rests in the archives, but at any time they can be dusted off”.
