History
The River Plate Soccer Club was founded in 1901 and by 1934, they had won both an amateur and professional championship. At the time, the club was known as Los Millonarios, or The Millionaires, because they would purchase players at higher prices than normal. On October 31, 1934, River Plate purchased the land where the club was to build the new stadium in the neighborhood of Belgrano.
El Monumental was built on land reclaimed from the marshy coast of Rio de la Plata. On May 25, 1935, the cornerstone was laid on the Centennial (now Figueroa Alcorta) and Río de la Plata (Udaondo) Avenues. On December 1 of that year, the Steering Committee presented the approved project in detail to its members at an assembly. They obtained a loan of $2,500,000 from the government and on September 27, 1936, construction began under the direction of architects José Aslan and Héctor Ezcurra.
The initial cost of work reached the figure of $4,479,545.80, but was reduced to about 3 million dollars when the committee decided to halt the construction of the north end of the stadium due to a lack of adequate funds.
The foundation of the stadium was to be six or eight feet deep. This required open pit excavation to ensure the stability of the ground, and pumping bilge water from the site. The construction of the three stands was completed in two years. There are 50 km of steps, with 26,000 square meters of reinforced concrete and almost 3,000 tons of steel.
The stadium was inaugurated on Wednesday the 25th of May, amidst a crowd of approximately 65,000 people. They witnessed the handing over of an Argentine flag, one from the club, paid for by a group of associates, and then sang the national anthem and the River Plate chant.
The next day, nearly 68,000 spectators were present. After various activities the evening ended with a match between River Plate and Peñarol from Uruguay, with a 3–1 victory for the home team.
Read more about this topic: Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti
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