Stadium
| Estadio Monumental | |
|---|---|
| Broke ground | 16 January 1991 |
| Opened | 2 July 2000 |
| Architect | Walter Lavalleja |
| Capacity | 80,000 |
Universitario's first stadium was Estadio Lolo Fernandez. It had a capacity of 15,000. Its capacity was reduced to 4,000 and now serves as a football academy for its club members and hosts football games for the Segunda División reserve team América Cochahuayco and youth teams in the youth divisions. It was built in honor of Teodoro “Lolo” Fernandez, Universitario's most revered player.
Estadio Monumental is a stadium that was built by the Peruvian construction company Gremco throughout the 1990s and opened in 2000, replacing Estadio Lolo Fernandez and the Nacional. The inauguration game was between Universitario and Sporting Cristal; Universitario won 2–0. It was given to Universitario the same year it was opened and they now own the largest stadium in Peru with a capacity of 80,093. This stadium is the third largest in South America. Its eastern and western stands are all-seaters and its northern and southern stands have standing terraces. Exactly 1,251 luxury boxes, known as palcos, are above the stands.
The stadium was deemed not fit to host the classic derby between Universitario and Alianza Lima between 2002 and 2007 by the Peruvian Police. The first time this stadium hosted the derby was on 26 June 2002—the first leg of the Apertura playoff—where Universitario won 1–0. Alianza's fans, in the southern stand, reacted violently to the loss by vandalizing the premises and causing two reported stabbings. Consequently, La U was forced to play all future derbies at Estadio Nacional where the Instituto Peruano del Deporte installed artificial turf which is constantly criticized by the First Division players. For the next five years this derby was not played at this stadium. On 14 September 2008, the derby returned to the Estadio Monumental with a loss for Universitario.
It is interesting to note that this stadium was rejected as a venue for the Copa América 2004 because of problems with Alfredo Gonzalez, President of Universitario de Deportes, and the stadium's owners. Many saw this as a typical bullying behavior on the part of the president since this stadium would have been the perfect venue to host the 2004 Copa América intro as well as final games.
Read more about this topic: Club Universitario De Deportes
Famous quotes containing the word stadium:
“The final upshot of thinking is the exercise of volition, and of this thought no longer forms a part; but belief is only a stadium of mental action, an effect upon our nature due to thought, which will influence future thinking.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
“In their eyes I have seen
the pin men of madness in marathon trim
race round the track of the stadium pupil.”
—Patricia K. Page (b. 1916)
“It’s no accident that of all the monuments left of the Greco- Roman culture the biggest is the ballpark, the Colosseum, the Yankee Stadium of ancient times.”
—Walter Wellesley (Red)