Raimundo Saporta Pavilion (originally known as Pabellón de la Ciudad Deportiva del Real Madrid) was an

indoor arena An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators ...

located in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. It was used particularly for

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

matches of

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

. Until 1999, it was known as the Pabellón de la Ciudad Deportiva del Real Madrid, when it was renamed in honor of the former president of Real Madrid's basketball team, the late

Raimundo Saporta Raimundo Saporta Namías (December 16, 1926 in Paris, France – February 2, 1997 in Madrid, Spain) was a Spanish professional sports club, club basketball administrator. After his death, FIBA and Real Madrid Baloncesto, Real Madrid renamed both t ...

.El derribo del pabellón Raimundo Saporta da paso a la construcción de cuatro rascacielos
11 August 2004 The arena was demolished in 2004.

Early history

The arena was inaugurated on 6 January 1966 for the annual intercontinental Philips trophy (later renamed annual

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

tournament), in which

Ignis Varese Pallacanestro Varese, also called by its current sponsor's name, the Openjobmetis Varese, is an Italian professional basketball club based in Varese, Lombardy. Founded in 1945, the team plays in the Italian first division LBA. For past club sp ...

defeated local Real Madrid, the Jarnaco Saints of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and the

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 ...

ian

Corinthians The First Epistle to the Corinthians ( grc, Α΄ ᾽Επιστολὴ πρὸς Κορινθίους) is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-aut ...

.PABELLÓN DE LA CIUDAD DEPORTIVA DEL REAL MADRID (1966-2004)-Historia
/ref> A year after its inauguration, on 1 April 1967, The arena saw the home team Real defeat

Simmenthal Milano Pallacanestro Olimpia Milano, commonly known as Olimpia Milano or as EA7 Emporio Armani Milan after its title sponsor, is an LBA Italian professional basketball team, based in Milan, Italy. Its colors are white and red, and the team is sometimes ...

to claim its third European Champions cup title after a 93–91 victory. Javier Gancedo
Euroleague final back in Madrid after 41 years
May 4, 2008 During the 21 consecutive years that Real played on the field of the old pavilion it would conquer 5 European Champions titles, 4 Intercontinental cups, 17 League Championships, 10 Cup titles, 1 Supercopa of Spain, 2 Matches of the Community of Madrid and 16 Matches of Christmas. The second in three straight Intercontinental cup winsBasketball Men: Intercontinental Cup
/ref> was achieved by the home team on the Pavilion floor in 1977.
/ref> The tremendous successes in that period of time made the 5,000 seat arena too small for a team of that magnitude, and in 1987 the team moved its home matches to the

Palace of Sports Palace of Sports or Sports Palace (russian: Дворец спорта) is a generic name of comprehensive indoors sports venues introduced in the Soviet Union (compare with Palace of Culture) of big size that includes various sports halls and auxil ...

of the Madrid Community located in the Goya Street of Madrid.

Recent years

Soon after Real decided to return and host its home matches in the arena in the start of the 1998–99 season, the arena was renovated at a cost of roughly 350 million pesetas El Mundo
El «nuevo-viejo» Pabellón del Madrid, listo para diciembre
11 November 1998 and reopened on 4 February 1999 and was also renamed Raimundo Saporta Pavilion in honor of the club director who had died in February 1997. The pavilion had increased

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

of 5,200 seats. The bad economic situation of the club forced club president

Florentino Pérez Florentino Pérez Rodríguez (; born 8 March 1947) is a Spanish businessman, civil engineer, former politician, and the current president of Real Madrid as well as Chairman and CEO of Grupo ACS, a civil engineering company. He was also the first ...

to sell the lands on which the Ciudad Deportiva was located for an estimated 188 million

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

s in November 2001. The demolition of the arena took place in August 2004,Cae el Raimundo Saporta y con él un santuario del baloncesto
and Real Madrid moved its home games to

Palacio Vistalegre The Palacio Vistalegre is a multipurpose arena located in Madrid, Spain. It was built on the site of the former bullring, "Plaza de toros de Vista Alegre", built in 1906 and demolished in 1995. The venue is composed of three main spaces: The Ar ...

Demolition and current development

The former site of the Sports city and the Raimundo Saporta Pavilion is now used for the Four Towers Business Area, an important

business park A business park or office park is a designated area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. These types of developments are often located in suburban areas where land and building costs are more affordable, and are typically ...

Notes

External links

{{Coord, 40.479218, -3.687662, type:landmark, display=title 1966 establishments in Spain 2004 disestablishments in Spain Sports venues demolished in 2004 Real Madrid Baloncesto Basketball venues in Spain Defunct basketball venues Demolished buildings and structures in Spain Former sports venues in Madrid Defunct sports venues in Spain Sports venues completed in 1966 Former buildings and structures in Madrid Defunct indoor arenas