The Estadio Gigante de Arroyito () is a

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 either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

in the city of

Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the west bank of the Paraná River. Rosario is the third-most populous ci ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. It is owned by club

Rosario Central Club Atlético Rosario Central () is a sports club based in Rosario, Argentina, that plays in the Argentine Primera División. The club was officially founded on December 24, 1889, by a group of railway workers, taking its name from the Englis ...

, serving as home venue for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

matches. The

Argentina national football team The Argentina national football team represents Argentina in men's international football and is administered by the Argentine Football Association, the governing body for football in Argentina. Nicknamed ''La Albiceleste'' ('The White and S ...

has played there several times. The stadium was named after the Arroyito neighborhood where it is placed. Officially inaugurated on November 14, 1926, the stadium has a capacity of 45,500 spectators. Besides, Gigante de Arroyito was one of the venues for the

1978 FIFA World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It was held in Argentina between 1 and 25 June. The Cup was won by t ...

and

1987 Copa América The 1987 Copa América was the 33rd edition of the Copa América, CONMEBOL's national team competition. It was the first Copa América under the new rotational hosting system. Argentina, as the first country alphabetically, hosted the tournament ...

, both hosted by Argentina.

History

When the club broke ties with the

Central Argentine Railway The Central Argentine Railway, referred to as CA below, (in Spanish: Ferrocarril Central Argentino) was one of the ''Big Four'' broad gauge, British companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina. The company had been establish ...

, the British company took back the land where Rosario Central had its ''Parada Castellanos'' field. As a result, the club had to search a place where to build a new stadium. Meanwhile, the team played their home venues at Club Bolsa de Comercio. By the end of 1925, the Municipality granted Rosario Central concession of a land in the ''Arroyito'' neighborhood for a term of 20 years. The land was placed on Génova and Cordiviola streets, and the club built its new stadium there.El Gigante
on Club Rosario Central Estadio de Arroyito 1926

The first match at the stadium in Arroyito was a

Copa Nicasio Vila The Copa Nicasio Vila was an official Argentine football cup competition organised by Liga Rosarina de Football. The "Copa Vila" was the top football division in Rosario, being held between 1907 and 1930, when it was replaced by Torneo Gobernad ...

(the main football competition in Rosario) match against arch-rival

Newell's Old Boys Club Atlético Newell's Old Boys () is an Argentine sports club based in Rosario, Santa Fe. The club was founded on 3 November 1903, and is named after Isaac Newell of the English county of Kent, one of the pioneers of Argentine football. A ...

, on November 14, 1926."El día que Rosario Central pasó a ser de Arroyito" by Leonardo Volpe on HFR, 21 Nov 2010 In December 1927, the Municipality of Rosario set a term of 20 years for the concession. During that year, the club built a concrete grandstand with capacity for 7,000, increasing its total capacity to 36,000. The refurbished and complete stadium was inaugurated in October 1927, when Rosario Central played a friendly vs Uruguayan club

Peñarol Club Atlético Peñarol (; English: ''Peñarol Athletic Club'') —also known as ''Carboneros'', ''Aurinegros,'' and (familiarly) ''Manyas''— is a Uruguayan sports club from Montevideo. The name "Peñarol" comes from the Peñarol neigh ...

. The old official grandstand was refurbished in 1939 and definitely replaced in 1948. Nowadays, the lower seats are placed there. By 1946, the club acquired a 38,000 m2 land on Iriondo and Pellegrini streets to build a new stadium due to the concession was about to expire. Nevertheless, Rosario Central reached an agreement with the Municipality, giving the council that land acquired in exchange for the land where the club had built its stadium in 1926. Postal_1978-2

In 1974, the Gigante stadium was chosen as venue for the

. The

National Reorganization Process The National Reorganization Process (Spanish: ''Proceso de Reorganización Nacional'', often simply ''el Proceso'', "the Process") was the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983, in which it was supported by the United Sta ...

(

military government A military government is generally any form of government that is administered by military forces, whether or not this government is legal under the laws of the jurisdiction at issue, and whether this government is formed by natives or by an occup ...

led by

Jorge Rafael Videla Jorge Rafael Videla (; ; 2 August 1925 – 17 May 2013) was an Argentine military officer and dictator, Commander in Chief of the Army, member of the Military Junta, and ''de facto'' President of Argentina from 29 March 1976 to 29 March 1981. H ...

) created an autarchic entity ("EAM") to take over refurbishment and constructions of stadiums to host the matches, among other duties related to the event. The EAM built the upper grandstands and lower seats of the ''Gigante'', but costs had to be incurred by the club. Subsecquent depreciations of local currencies, resulted in much higher final costs than original estimations. After works for the World Cup, the stadium increased its capacity to 41,465. Three matches of group 2 (with

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

) and all three second-round games of the Argentina national team in the World Cup (where the squad beat

and

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

) were played in the ''Gigante''. In

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

, the stadium was one of the

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

venues, hosting all the group C (Paraguay, Bolivia and Colombia) matches. In September 2009, the ''Gigante'' hosted one

2010 World Cup qualification Qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation — the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (Oce ...

match, when

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

beat Argentina 3–1. The Gigante stadium had been proposed as venue by request of then Argentina manager

Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona (; 30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two joint winners of the FI ...

(and then approved by

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

). The stadium also hosted two

The Rugby Championship The Rugby Championship is an international rugby union competition contested annually by Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. These are the four highest ranked national teams in the Southern Hemisphere; the Six Nations is a s ...

matches played by

, in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

Rosario y Mendoza recibirán a Los Pumas
''El Litoral''Los Pumas reciben a Australia
on ''La Voz'', 6 Oct 2012 and

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

Sporting events

1978 FIFA World Cup

During the

, the stadium hosted six matches, three

Group 2 The term Group 2 may refer to: * Alkaline earth metal, a chemical element classification * Astronaut Group 2, also known as The New Nine, the second group of astronauts selected by NASA in 1962 * Group 2 (racing), an FIA classification for cars in a ...

(first stage) matches and three more during

second round The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds e ...

1987 Copa América

The stadium hosted three Group C matches in the

held in Argentina:

Rugby union

Rosario Central Stadium has hosted several rugby union games of the Argentina national team.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Estadio Gigante De Arroyito Gigante de Arroyito Gigante de Arroyito Gigante de Arroyito Rosario Central Buildings and structures in Rosario, Santa Fe Sport in Santa Fe Province