source: Radio Galega, COPE; author: Miguel Ciołczyk Garcia
Anfield-style stands, a seating capacity similar to Reale arena and a model copied from the Bernabéu. The Coruña City Council is giving clues about the details of the new Riazor project, but the financing and the final design are still unknown. And time is against them.
Advertisement
Entering 2025, the key year for the World Cup 2030 venues, the councillor for Culture and Tourism of A Coruña, Gonzalo Castro, explained the progress of the Riazor project on Radio Galega. One of the novelties is that the City Council is thinking of building asymmetrical stands, such as those at Anfield or Signal Iduna Park.
If these plans become reality, Maraton and Pabellon stands would be expanded. This is where usually the most loyal fans sit. A lot of people don’t go to Tribuna or Preferencia because of the price and because it’s not the atmosphere they want,
says the councillor, who argues that stands similar to The Kop in Liverpool or the Südtribüne in Dortmund would be better suited to social demand.
© Groundhopping Merseburg | With 24,500 standing places, the Südtribune is the largest one-level stand in Europe.
The social demand is with which, along with the need to host concerts, the City Council justifies the expansion. Castro explained the changes in terms of capacity, which was to be 48,000 spectators as the city wanted to fight to host the semifinals. We knew it was a very ambitious bet and it could succeed or not,
he said.
Now, with the round of 16 as the best option, the City Council is looking for a smaller capacity. The councilman referred to Reale Arena as an example, with some 42,000 seats between general public and VIP seats. RFEF president Rafael Louzán has already said that thinking about a larger capacity makes no sense
with an attendance of 25,000 fans per game. According to him, in the event of Deportivo returning to La Liga perhaps
the average will reach 32,000 fans.Now we no longer have a team that plays a Primera División match on Saturday and a Champions League match on Wednesday.
This is how Castro justified the intention to turn Riazor into a multipurpose venue like Santiago Bernabéu or Estadio Metropolitano.
The Coruña City Council makes it clear that organizing concerts and other events throughout the year is key for the project to be profitable, although they assure that it has to be adapted to the needs of Deportivo.
© David Estany Garea / Concello A Coruña | Previously, the City Council proposed a new Riazor with symmetrical stands.
Now, six years before the World Cup, the City Council must face several challenges: tight deadlines, relations with Deportivo and financing. Mayor Ines Rey has assured in an interview with COPE that although the budget of some €90M is not ready, the financing is assured.
That is why we have been chosen to host the World Cup,
she maintains, despite the fact that both the private investor and the distribution of the public part of the financing between City Hall, Diputación (provincial authorities) and the Xunta (regional authorities) are unknown.
As for the relations with Deportivo, the mayor said that they have been informed of everything from minute one and will continue to be so.
The club frowns on such a large increase in capacity, fearing a half-empty stadium, but they are also concerned about having Riazor’s capacity greatly reduced during the works.
It is the construction, precisely, the last and most important issue to be resolved. FIFA requires the works to be finished one year before the tournament, meaning the summer of 2029. It is precisely this date that Gonzalo Castro sets. Starting in the summer of 2026, with a timeframe of exactly 3 years duration, they should be finished in the summer of 2029.
Such a plan leaves little room for error.
But the City Council is optimistic. We have to use the World Cup to make a five-star Riazor,
Castro says. Inés Rey’s team is excited about being the smallest city in the world to be a two-times World Cup host
and is confident that everything will come to fruition.
© David Estany Garea / Concello A Coruña | The new Riazor Stadium should be ready by summer 2029 at the latest.
Advertisement
Advertisement
StadiumDB.com is one of the world’s leading websites dedicated to football stadiums. We strive to keep it up-to-date, mostly thanks to your support.
Our database counts: 2429 stadiums, 1167 stadium designs, 298 stadiums under construction, 207 tournament stadiums and 138 historical stadiums.
© 2001-now StadiumDB.com. All rights reserved.
