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:
““And now this is the way in which the history of your former life has reached my ears!” As he said this he held out in his hand the fatal letter.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)
“There are two great unknown forces to-day, electricity and woman, but men can reckon much better on electricity than they can on woman.”
—Josephine K. Henry, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 15, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“As I am, so shall I associate, and so shall I act; Caesar’s history will paint out Caesar.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)