Estadio Metropolitano Roberto Meléndez
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Estadio Metropolitano Roberto Meléndez, commonly known as Estadio Metropolitano, or colloquially, El Metro, is a multi-use
all-seater An all-seater stadium is a sports stadium in which every spectator has a seat. This is commonplace in professional association football stadiums in nations such as the United Kingdom, Spain, and the Netherlands. Most association football and Amer ...
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 ...
stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...
in
Barranquilla Barranquilla () is the capital district of the Atlántico department in Colombia. It is located near the Caribbean Sea and is the largest city and third port in the Caribbean region of Colombia, Caribbean coast region; as of 2018, it had a popul ...
,
Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
. It is the home stadium of local football team
Atlético Junior Club Deportivo Popular Junior F.C. S.A. (), commonly known as Junior de Barranquilla, by its old name Atlético Junior or simply as Junior, is a Colombian professional football team based in Barranquilla, capital of the department of Atlantic ...
. It was built with a capacity of 46,788 for the Colombian World Cup bid in 1986. The stadium was inaugurated that year with a game between
Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...
and Junior, which the Uruguayans won 2–1. It is the largest stadium in Colombia, after the
Estadio Deportivo Cali Estadio Deportivo Cali, also called Estadio de Palmaseca, is a 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, fo ...
's renovation. The first official name of the stadium was ''Estadio Metropolitano'', which was changed around 1991 in order to honor the Colombian footballer Roberto Meléndez. This is the official stadium for the national football team of Colombia.


History

Before the construction of Estadio Metropolitano, the city only had the
Romelio Martínez Stadium The Estadio Romelio Martínez, or Romelio Martínez Stadium, is a sports stadium located at 72 street and 46 Avenue in the Colombian city of Barranquilla. It has a capacity of 8,600 spectators. Until the construction of the Estadio Metropolitan ...
, which was built in 1934 with a capacity of 10,000 spectators. Since the advent of professional football to Barranquilla in 1948, it became evident the need for a sports arena that would house the football fans. In the early 1970s, the expansion of the Romelio Martínez Stadium was projected with the construction of new bleachers for the sports arena. However, an architectural error would force the reduction of the 72nd Street to complete the works. After some time it was decided to demolish the new forum yet unfinished in the midst of strong criticism, which the local press called the Gallery of Shame. Due to the large amount of money being spent on this project, it failed because subsequent studies showed the impossibility of conducting a proper extension to the scenario, it was decided that the best solution was to design an entirely new football stadium for the city. In 1979, the governor of the department of Atlántico, Pedro Martín Leyes presented President Julio César Turbay the project to build a new stadium in Barranquilla, supported the idea of doing a host of World Cup 1986 to be held in Colombia. The project is approved and the foundation stone for the building is placed on December 7 of 1979 in an area of 30 hectares, located on the avenue Circunvalar with Murillo Street, donated by the Instituto de Crédito Territorial (Inscredial). For its construction the firm ''Metrofútbol'' was formed, led by architect Jaime de Biasse. José Francisco Ramos was appointed as architect of the stadium, awarding construction to engineer Julio Gerlein and electrical Engineer Luis Gonzalo Prada Ch.


Inauguration

The construction of Estadio Metropolitano lasted six years, after which a grand opening was held on May 11, 1986 with a folk show in which 5,000 artists, an awards ceremony for VIPs Sport Colombia, a giant ball that left 200 white doves and the holding of an international friendly match. The opening match was played between the teams Junior and Uruguay national team, led by coach Omar Borrás, which was preparing for
1986 FIFA World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-tea ...
. The match ended with Uruguay's victory 1-2, goals scored by
Enzo Francescoli Enzo Francescoli Uriarte (; born 12 November 1961), nicknamed "El Príncipe" (), is a Uruguayan former footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or forward. He is regarded as one of the best playmakers of his generation and as one of Ur ...
(the first goal scored in the stadium at 62 minutes) and Jorge da Silva for the visitors and José "Perilla" Angulo for the locals, all goals scored in the second half. The first red card was for Uruguayan player Walter Barrios at 87 minutes. Four days later, another match was held against Argentina national team during their tour in preparation for the same event, which ended up winning the future world championship.


Events

This stadium was one of the venues where Colombian National Games in 1992 were contested. Hosted the
2001 Copa América The 2001 Copa América was held in Colombia, from 11 to 29 July. It was organised by CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body. Colombia won the tournament for the 1st time without conceding a goal. Brazil were the two-time defending cha ...
including the opening ceremony with a colourful parade and a show dance. The venue held six matches in Group A which included the national teams of
Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
,
Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...
,
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...
and
Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...
, between July 11 and 17. Was the venue where Colombia national team played the qualification matches for World Cups in Italy (1990), United States (1994),
France (1998) The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...
and
Germany (2006) The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams represe ...
. For the first three, Colombia qualified for the final tournament after 28 years of absence. It also hosted the qualification matches for
2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...
where Colombia qualified again after 16 years of absence. It hosted the farewell match for
Carlos Valderrama Carlos Alberto Valderrama Palacio (Colombian Spanish: ; born 2 September 1961), also known as ''"El Pibe"'' ("The Kid"), is a Colombian former professional footballer and sports commentator for Fútbol de Primera, who played as an attacking m ...
on February 1, 2004, which was attended by players
Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona Franco (30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional association football, football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two ...
,
José Luis Chilavert José Luis Félix Chilavert González (; born 27 July 1965) is a Paraguayan former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Sportivo Luqueño, Guaraní, San Lorenzo de Almagro, Real Zaragoza, Vélez Sarsfield, RC Strasbourg, P ...
,
Enzo Francescoli Enzo Francescoli Uriarte (; born 12 November 1961), nicknamed "El Príncipe" (), is a Uruguayan former footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or forward. He is regarded as one of the best playmakers of his generation and as one of Ur ...
,
Alberto Acosta Alberto Federico 'Beto' Acosta Tabizzi (born 23 August 1966) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a striker. In a professional career which spanned 18 years (nearly 700 official games and more than 250 goals), he pla ...
,
Mauricio Serna Mauricio Alberto "Chicho" Serna Valencia (born 22 January 1968) is a Colombian former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Serna played for a number of clubs, including Deportivo Pereira, Atlético Nacional, Boca Juniors (Argenti ...
,
Faustino Asprilla Faustino Hernán Asprilla Hinestroza (born 10 November 1969) is a Colombian former professional footballer who played as forward or winger, most notably for Parma, Newcastle United and the Colombia national team. Club career Early years Afte ...
,
Arnoldo Iguarán Arnoldo Alberto Iguarán Zúñiga (born 18 January 1957), also known as ''El Guajiro'', is a Colombian former professional footballer who played as a forward. He earned 68 caps for the Colombia national team between 1979 and 1993, playing at ...
, Leonel Álvarez and the popular singer
Carlos Vives Carlos Alberto Vives Restrepo (born 7 August 1961) is a Colombians, Colombian singer, songwriter and actor. One of the List of best-selling Latin music artists, best-selling Latin music artists of all time, with over 20 million records world ...
. In 2006, the stadium hosted some football matches of the XX Central American and Caribbean Games, which were held in Cartagena. In 2011, the stadium was one of eight stadiums that hosted matches during the
FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members' men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when i ...
, including the opening ceremony. The stadium has also hosted numerous concerts of various artists such as
REO Speedwagon REO Speedwagon (originally stylized as R.E.O. Speedwagon), or simply REO, was an American Rock music, rock band from Champaign, Illinois. Formed in 1967, the band cultivated a following during the 1970s and achieved significant commercial suc ...
,
Franco De Vita Franco Atilio De Vita De Vito (born January 23, 1954, in Caracas, Venezuela) is a Venezuelan Latin Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter. His first album as a solo artist garnered three Spanish-language hits in Venezuela. He signed with the ...
,
Shakira Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll ( , ; born 2 February 1977) is a Colombian singer-songwriter. Referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Latin Music", she has had a Cultural impact of Shakira, significant impact on the ...
,
Juanes Juan Esteban Aristizábal Vásquez (born 9 August 1972), known professionally as Juanes, is a Colombian musician who was a member of the Rock music, rock band Ekhymosis and is now a solo artist. Since releasing his solo debut album ''Fíjate B ...
and
Carlos Vives Carlos Alberto Vives Restrepo (born 7 August 1961) is a Colombians, Colombian singer, songwriter and actor. One of the List of best-selling Latin music artists, best-selling Latin music artists of all time, with over 20 million records world ...
. On June 27, 2019, the stadium was announced as the venue to host the
2021 Copa América The 2021 Copa América was the 47th edition of the Copa América, the international men's association football, football championship organised by South America's football ruling body CONMEBOL. The tournament took place in Brazil from 13 June to ...
Final. The announcement was made by Ernesto Lucena, Director of
Coldeportes The Administrative Department of Sport, Recreation, Physical Activity and the Use of Free Time, Coldeportes was the national government department of sports in and for Colombia; it is charged with fomenting, planning and organizing the activities ...
.


Facilities

The stadium has five galleries: Southern (Korea), with the "Frente Rojiblanco Sur" supporters; Northern (Vietnam), with the groups of supporters "La Banda" and "Los Kuervos"; Eastern, Western and numbered Western. It also has four dressing rooms, eight bathrooms, 27 radio booths, newsroom systems, lighting towers (24 reflectors), medical services and parking for up to 1,600 vehicles. The stadium's field measures 110 m by 75 m. The south and north side galleries were the names of Korea and Vietnam, respectively, in honor of two Asian countries that suffered from wars during the twentieth century, one of which was the presence of Colombian soldiers fighting (Korea). A complete renovation with a budget of COP$22,500,000,000. The remodeling of the stadium involved building giant screens, repairing of the athletic track, a new parking lot behind the north gallery, new lighting, dressing rooms for ball-catchers, overall structure restoration, a security camera system, renovation of electrical systems and communications among other improvements.


Location and access routes

Estadio Metropolitano is located in the south of the city, heading for Transport Terminal and the municipality of Soledad, near Shopping Centers and Metropolitan Metrocentro. Currently the gallery is constructed in the commercial public sector north side of the stadium (crossing the Avenida Las Torres). The crossing of the avenues and Circunvalar Murillo is an easily accessible, both avenues have enough availability of transport. At this point, is widening the carriageway of the road from the Avenue Circunvalar cordiality. Other gateways may be Boyacá Avenue and Avenida Las Torres. In Murillo street
Transmetro Transmetro is a bus rapid transit system in Guatemala City, Guatemala. The first line opened on 3 February 2007. The fleet consists of modern Volvo buses made by Ciferal in Brazil. The buses have fixed stops and partly run on dedicated lanes, av ...
, the mass transport line is an alternative access at Joaquín Barrios Polo station.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Estadio Metropolitano Roberto Melendez Sports venues completed in 1986
Metropolitano Metropolitano S.A. was a privately owned consortium formed in 1994 to take over concessions granted by the Argentine government as part of railway privatisation during the presidency of Carlos Menem for the operation of commuter rail services i ...
1986 establishments in Colombia Buildings and structures in Barranquilla Atlético Junior