Estadio de La Romareda () is the home stadium of

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, Spanish league system. Zarag ...

, in

Zaragoza Zaragoza (), traditionally known in English as Saragossa ( ), is the capital city of the province of Zaragoza and of the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributaries, the ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It was inaugurated on 8 September 1957, with a game between Real Zaragoza and

CA Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional football club based in Pamplona, Navarre. It was founded on 24 October 1920 and plays in La Liga, the top division of Spanish football. The team's ...

(4–3). The official capacity is 33,608, with an average attendance of around 20,000 for Real Zaragoza matches. Currently, it is the 12th-largest stadium in Spain and the largest in

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...

. The stadium has gone through various upgrades, in 1977 and in 1982, when it was a

1982 FIFA World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain from 13 June to 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy national footbal ...

venue. The stadium was also used for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

group matches and a quarterfinal during the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics (, ), officially the Games of the XXV Olympiad (, ) and officially branded as Barcelona '92, were an international multi-sport event held from 25 July to 9 August 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Beginning in 1994 ...

. It became an all-seater stadium in 1994. The stadium also hosted the 1992-94 FIRA Trophy match between

and

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

in 1994. Plans to build a new stadium in

have been abandoned. La Romareda was proposed as the

Olympic Stadium ''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports ...

Jaca Jaca (; in Aragonese language, Aragonese: ''Chaca'' or ''Xaca'') is a city of northeastern Spain in the province of Huesca (province), Huesca, located near the Pyrenees and the border with France. Jaca is an ancient fort on the Aragón (river), ...

's failed bid for the

2014 Winter Olympics The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXII Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Sochi 2014 (), were an international winter multi-sport event that was held from 7 to 23 February 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Opening ro ...

. Works for the enlargement of ''La Romareda'' into a 43,000-seat stadium were due to begin on April 17, 2006 and end in time for the Zaragoza Expo of 2008. However, a lawsuit was filed by a political party (PAR), claiming that the enlargement of the stadium would be to the detriment of the population, in order to suspend the planned works. A judge ordered the suspension and the works were put on hold. On 8 July 2024, the demolition of the original ''La Romareda'' began. On 13 September 2024, Nueva Romareda put out to tender the major phase of demolition and construction of the new stadium for 138.5 million euros (excluding VAT, which is deductible). The first half of 2025 will see the start of construction of the new Gol Sur (South Goal) stand. And, from 1 July 2025, with the football season over and the modular stadium in the North car park (a temporary replacement for La Romareda) erected, work will begin on the rest of the facility, with the dismantling of the entire roof, and subsequent demolition and reconstruction of the stadium's other three stands. The new stadium will have 43,110 seats for football matches, and expandable for concerts. The ultimate goal is that on August 31, 2027, the ''Nueva Romareda'' will be a reality, so that Real Zaragoza can play in the new stadium with all the guarantees for the 2027-2028 season.La Nueva Romareda saca a licitación por 138,5 millones de euros la gran fase de derribos y construcción del nuevo estadio
(in Spanish)

History

The construction of La Romareda was due to the efforts of the mayor Luis Gómez Laguna, and his successor Cesáreo Alierta, who was the president of Real Zaragoza. Their previous ground Estadio Torrero, with a capacity of 15,000, was considered too small. The matter was brought before the city council, who on 9 February 1956 approved the plans to build the stadium. The task of building the stadium was given to the construction company Agroman, who in the 15 months it took to build the stadium employed 350 employees. The stadium has been used as a concert venue.

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...

performed at the stadium during his

HIStory World Tour The ''HIS''tory World Tour was the third and final worldwide solo concert tour by American singer and songwriter Michael Jackson, covering Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa and North America. The tour included a total of 82 concerts spanning the gl ...

on September 23 1996 in front of 45,000 of attendance.

Gloria Estefan Gloria María Milagrosa Estefan (; ; born September 1, 1957) is an American singer, actress, and businesswoman. Estefan is an eight-time Grammy Awards, Grammy Award winner, a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, and has been named one of t ...

performed at the stadium in front of another sold out crowd of 45,000 on her Evolution Tour on October 20, 1996.

Nets

La Romareda boasts the bizarre claim to have

Europe's Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

deepest goal nets, which stretch back four

metre The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...

s. The nets also have a striking blue and white diagonal stripe design.

1982 FIFA World Cup

The stadium was one of the venues of the

, and held three matches:

2030 FIFA World Cup

It could potentially host matches for the

2030 FIFA World Cup The 2030 FIFA World Cup will be the 24th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament contested by the men's national teams of the member associations of FIFA. Three countries will host the competition, representing, for the ...

which Spain will co-host along with Morocco and Portugal.

References

External links

Estadios de Espana

1992 Summer Olympics official report.
Volume 2. pp. 331–33. {{DEFAULTSORT:La Romareda Football venues in Aragon Real Zaragoza Venues of the 1992 Summer Olympics Rugby union stadiums in Spain Buildings and structures in Zaragoza Sports venues completed in 1957