History
The original building was designed and conceived by Mario Recordón in 1956 with the name "Metropolitan Indoor Stadium" to be the seat of the 1958 World Basketball Championship. However, funding was redirected to remodeling the National Stadium, with a view to achieving the 1962 World Cup. The roofed stadium was left in total neglect.
During the term of Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle it was decided to complete it. The work was financed by Hiller Investments, which received a grant from the Ministry of Public Works with a 20-year lease.
Arena Santiago was symbolically opened on March 7, 2006 by then President Ricardo Lagos, and it was inaugurated on April 15 that year by his successor, Michelle Bachelet.
In 2008, managers signed a contract with portable phone company Movistar Chile for 16 years.
Read more about this topic: Movistar Arena
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The principle office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–117)
“The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful.”
—Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)
“What would we not give for some great poem to read now, which would be in harmony with the scenery,—for if men read aright, methinks they would never read anything but poems. No history nor philosophy can supply their place.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)