The Estadio Olimpico Metropolitano de Mérida or Estadio Metropolitano is a

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

stadium located in the city of Mérida in

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

. It was built to be one venues of the

2007 Copa América The 2007 Campeonato Sudamericano Copa América, known simply as the 2007 Copa América or 2007 Copa América Venezuela, was the 42nd edition of the Copa América, the South-American championship for international association football teams. The c ...

and it would also serve as one of the venues for the National Games of Venezuela Andes 2005. The stadium is part of a major sports complex, called ''Cinco Águilas Blancas'' located in the south of the city, in a zone called Urbanizacion Hacienda.

History

Its construction started in 2005 when it was decided that Mérida was going to be a subvenue for the National Venezuelan Games in that same year and for the Copa America 2007. 165 days later after construction started, the stadium was opened momentarily on December 7, 2005 for the opening of the National Games with only one seating area built, out of 4 and 2 more minor seating areas, giving the event a capacity for 16,000 people. After the National Games finished, the stadium was temporarily closed for an inspection, then after building a big part of the stadium in so little time, the government of Mérida gave 30,000,000 bolivares to the contractors of the stadium. The government starts in January 2006 an audit to determine the costs of the stadium for the government determining that the initial cost (150,000,000 bolivares) was not enough and that it had to be raised to 230,000,000 bolivares (US$107,274,982) to finish the stadium and to be able in participate in the Copa America 2007.

Description

This is the fourth largest stadium in Venezuela behind the Estadio Monumental of Maturín (52,000 persons), José Pachencho Romero of Maracaibo (46,000 persons) and the

Polideportivo Cachamay The Estadio Cachamay is part of the Centro Total de Entretenimiento Cachamay (English: The Total Entertainment Center of Cachamay). It is a multipurpose stadium located on Avenida Guayana in Puerto Ordaz (Part of Ciudad Guayana) Bolivar State, Ven ...

in Puerto Ordaz (42,500 persons) with a capacity of 42,200, distributed in 4 stands of 50,000 m².

2007 Copa América The 2007 Campeonato Sudamericano Copa América, known simply as the 2007 Copa América or 2007 Copa América Venezuela, was the 42nd edition of the Copa América, the South-American championship for international association football teams. The c ...

The stadium was one of the venues for the Copa America 2007, hosting three matches from Group A of said competition.

References

External links

StadiumDB.com images

Metropolitano Metropolitano S.A. was a privately owned consortium formed in 1994 to take over concessions granted by the Argentine government as part of railway privatisation during the presidency of Carlos Menem for the operation of commuter rail services i ...

Estudiantes de Mérida Buildings and structures in Mérida, Mérida 2007 establishments in Venezuela Athletics (track and field) venues in Venezuela {{Venezuela-sports-venue-stub