Estadio Contador Damiani, formerly Las Acacias, 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 completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

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 ...

, inaugurated in 1916 and re-built in 1997. It is used mostly for

Peñarol Club Atlético Peñarol (), more commonly referred to as Peñarol, is a Uruguayan professional football club based in Montevideo. The club currently competes in the Uruguayan Primera División, the highest tier in Uruguayan football. The nam ...

's reserves matches.El centenario de Las Acacias
at ''El País'' The stadium, mostly used for

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 ...

matches, can hold up to 7,000 people.Peñarol: Las Acacias se moderniza con césped artificial y un aforo de 7000 personas
at Fútbol.uy VIP stands and the entrance were taken in 1930 to the stadium Estadio Pocitos, where the first ever goal in

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

history was scored by the French forward

Lucien Laurent Lucien Laurent (10 December 1907 – 11 April 2005) was a French association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. Playing for France national football team, France, at the 1930 FIFA World Cup, 1930 World C ...

. The structure has since been returned to its original location. This stadium bears the name of the person who was president of Peñarol for years, the accountant José Pedro Damiani.

History

In 1912 the company "La Transatlántica" offered the CURCC (club predecessor to Peñarol) a land so that it could build a playing field closer to

than Villa Peñarol. The 38,000 square feet land was located in the Marconi neighborhood facing Avenida de Las Acacias (today José Possolo) and the authorities of the institution promised to pay for it, monthly installments of 150 pesos of the time until reaching the agreed price ( URU$20,207). In 1913 the payment for the field was completed and it passed definitively into the hands of Peñarol."97 años de Las Acacias", 19 Apr 2013 at Manyahistoria blog After years in which the construction of the stands did not materialize, works were finished under Francisco Simón's administration. The venue was finally inaugurated on April 19, 1916 in a friendly match (won by the local team 3–1) between Peñarol and its classic rival Nacional for the "Transatlantic Cup". Peñarol played all their home matches at Las Acacias until 1921 when Estadio Pocitos was inaugurated. The great amount of supporters that attended Peñarol matches forced the moving to that venue. Since then, Las Acacias has been used as a venue for Peñarol reserve teams and training divisions, although the senior squad would return to the stadium in the 1990s. Nevertheless in late 1990s the Municipality of Montevideo disallowed the use of the stadium for Primera División matches alleging security reasons. The last official match played by Peñarol's senior team was on the 1st round of Torneo Clausura in 1997, against

Rampla Juniors Rampla Juniors Fútbol Club, commonly known as Rampla Juniors, is a Uruguayan football club based in Montevideo. The team was actively playing the 2021 season by January 2021. In their home stadium, Rampla won the Uruguayan championship in 1927. I ...

. For this reason, Peñarol used

Estadio Centenario Centenario Stadium (, ; , named after the Constitution of Uruguay of 1830, centenary of Constitution of Uruguay, Uruguay's Constitution) is an association football stadium in Montevideo, Uruguay. Located in the Parque Batlle, Parque Battle neig ...

to play their home games until the inauguration of

Estadio Campeón del Siglo Estadio Campeón del Siglo is a association football, football stadium located in Bañados de Carrasco, Montevideo, Uruguay, and the Home (sports), home ground of Peñarol, who plays in the Uruguayan Primera División, First Division. It has a ma ...

in 2016. Although Peñarol has other larger complexes, reforms have been announced to improve the general condition of both the complex and the stadium. In January 2023, it was announced that

artificial turf Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass, used in sports arenas, residential lawns and commercial applications that traditionally use grass. It is much more durable than grass and easily maintained wi ...

would be installed on the stadium.

References

External links

* {{Peñarol Estadio Contador Damiani Sports venues completed in 1916 Sports venues completed in 1997 Football venues in Uruguay