At the former Vicentre Calderon the M-30 dual carriageway passed below one of the stands. This was the home of Atletico Madrid and located on the banks of the Manzanares, in the Arganzuela district of Madrid, Spain.
The Manzanares river is also featured in many paintings of the late 18th to early 19th-century painter Francisco de Goya. These paintings show traditionally dressed people involved in activities like dancing or having picnics next to the river.
It was too early to capture people dressed in red and white in art.
Since the demise of the all Milan clubs, Barcelona and Real Madrid have emerged as arguably the two strongest teams in Europe. These two have taken it in turns to keep secure a grasp of the UEFA Champions League trophy season after season. In doing so they have given a platform to great names; the likes of Ronaldo, Messi, Bale and Neymar.
Competing with such powerful brands in La Liga is a huge task given the resources, historical esteem and money available to both. Atletico Madrid have however grown to become a major player in Spanish football.
In recent years they have won the La Liga title; and the UEFA Europa League on two separate occasions. In doing so they have swatted away any lingering domestic challenge from traditional foes like Valencia and Seville.
But while Germany, France, England and even neighboring Portugal have hosted international football events it’s not since Copa Mundial ‘82 that Spain has hosted a FIFA event.
For many years’ Spanish domestic stadiums have not changed even since that summer of 1982 under the gaze of King Juan Carlos. This fact, however, might be about to change with the emergence of new grounds across the Spanish Peninsula.
On-field success is now being followed with all important infrastructural development. While the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid and the iconic Nou Camp continue to be central to the landscape of Spanish football a group of new stadiums are emerging.
Most notably these are in Bilbao and at Barcelona-based club Espanyol.
A challenge to Real and Barcelona by Atletico made a further evolutionary statement of intent when the club announced it would have a new home in the east of the Capital ready for the 2017-18 season.
The Wanda Metropolitan Stadium will be the new venue.
During July 2007 Atlético Madrid, the Mahou brewery and the city of Madrid signed an agreement to reclassify the land occupied by the Vicente Calderón Stadium.
Central to the agreement was that Atlético would move to the Estadio Olímpico de Madrid, also known as the Estadio La Peineta. The ground with one high sided stand would be renovated in preparation for Atlético’s tenancy.
When finished it would allow almost 75,000 fans to watch the football matches of Atletico and have the potential to host UEFA Champions League events.
The Metropolitano stadium will be the fourth home of the club since its foundation in 1903.
Originally the club played at the Ronda de Vallecas venue until 1923. After a few decades a move to the Manazares – later the Vicente Calderón – came about in 1966.
While the ‘Metropolitano’ title for the new stadium hints tellingly at the past traditions of the club the ‘Wanda’ part makes reference to the Wanda Group; a Chinese multinational conglomerate corporation and the world’s’ biggest private property developer.
Since 2011 Wanda have been a big player in the growing Chinese football league.
Through a number of programmes, the company have striven to forge links between Chinese and Spanish football. More tellingly for the future potential of international football events in Spain, the company has close ties with FIFA.
During March 2016 Wanda signed a deal with FIFA to provide sponsorship at the next four World Cups up until 2030.
As seems to be a common marketing theme these days, the movement to the new stadium will also be accompanied by the development of the club badge.
As with elements of the new stadium name the badge encompasses elements of the clubs’ past heritage. It chooses to maintain the established formal recognized structure as seen on the present shirt but now includes newer modern shades of blue, red and white.
Moreover, links to the city of Madrid are maintained and reinforced through the use of the bear, strawberry tree and stars.
With this move, we as fans have to say goodbye to one of European football’s most unique landmark stadiums. Atmospheric, passionate this was home to the fanatical Frente Atletico supporters.
Over the years the ground has witnessed some of the greatest feats in the clubs’ history these include older historic and newer modern day quests for an elusive European Cup. Internationally it was a host venue for the World Cup 1982 hosting three matches.
Occupying approximately 35,000 sq. meters, work on the Vicente Calderon stadium commenced in 1961 and opened with a game between Atletico Madrid and Valencia. The scorer of the first goal was the man who set Spain on the road to its historic European Championship title of 2008 – and perhaps one of the greatest figures in the history of Atletico – Luis Aragonés.
It was here in the Vicente Calderon that maximum respects were shown to Aragonés after his sudden death to leukemia. A large choreography was unfolded by the fans paying respect to its greatest son.
Conveniently located just outside the city’s central district on the southern side of the capital the most notable and spectacular features of the Vicente Calderón included its status alongside the M30 dual carriageway.
The stadium was wholly comprised of open seating around three sides with a covered main stand set apart above the motorway.
Currently, the plan is that the Vicente Calderón Stadium will be demolished, and a public park will be built on its place.
This will be named the ‘Park Atlético Madrid’.
While traditional fans have now reconciled themselves to the fact that the Vicente Calderon’s days are numbered, the decision to demolish the stadium was not well received initially. However, it is now likely that support for the club from people dressed in red and white – both in Madrid and Spain – will increase substantially with the move such is the price of modernization and progress.
Goodbye Vicente Calderon – full set here.