Wanda Metropolitano Stadium, Atlético de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

A Champions Stadium

By Chus Rodríguez

The Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid, new home to Atlético de Madrid, represents a turning point for sports facilities. It is the first football stadium with 100 percent LED lighting. In 2019 it will host the final of the Champions League, the most important football club competition in the world.

The outstanding lighting at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium was just one aspect of this challenging job. Cruz y Ortiz Arquitectos won the commission to expand and reconvert a building that was once part of an unsuccessful bid to host the Olympics. The architect was not, therefore, starting from scratch. Instead it had to transform a stadium which, due to its characteristic shape, was nicknamed ‘the comb’, from an original capacity of 19,000 spectators to a place that could host almost 70,000 spectators. This had to be done under the banner of Atlético de Madrid, recent champion of the Spanish league and a two times finalist in the Europa league for the last five years. “There is no sense that this is a transformed Olympic stadium – it feels like a dedicated football stadium,” said Antonio Cruz.