Estadio Universidad Católica was a multi-use

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 ...

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. The venue was also known as Estadio Baquedano and Estadio Reina Victoria, due to the

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

events held there and the good relations between the entrepreneur in charge of the events and a cigar company. Among the events held at this venue were football matches, boxing nights (including a Latin American championship), equestrian events, and others. The Estadio Universidad Católica was the first of four stadiums that have been owned by the Chilean club Universidad Católica, followed by the Campos de Sports de Ñuñoa,

Estadio Independencia Estadio Independencia is a multi-use stadium in Estelí, Nicaragua. It is used for football matches and is the home stadium to Real Estelí. The stadium holds 5,000 people, and was renovated and equipped with synthetic turf to be used by Real E ...

, and the

Estadio San Carlos de Apoquindo Estadio San Carlos de Apoquindo, also referred to as Claro Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium, in Las Condes in the metropolitan region of Santiago de Chile. The stadium, located into the San Carlos de Apoquindo Sports Complex ...

. This sports venue was located at the corner of Maestranza Street (currently named Avenida Portugal) and Marcoleta.

History

In 1927, a tennis tournament was held on the grounds that would later be used to build the stadium. The participants were engineering students from the

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (UC Chile; ) is a traditional private university based in Santiago, Chile. It is one of the thirteen Catholic universities existing in Chilean university system and one of the two pontifical unive ...

. From 1928 to the early 1930s, the sports venue was shared with Ratinoff y Cía. through a concession agreement, in exchange for infrastructure improvements. On December 1 of that year, the sports field was inaugurated as Estadio Baquedano, due to its proximity to Plaza Baquedano in

. The inauguration featured a day of the National Boxing Championship, contested among various cities, with over 4,000 spectators in attendance. In October 1929, the stadium's name changed to Estadio Reina Victoria, resulting from the good relations between entrepreneur Alfredo Ratinoff and a tobacco company, whose main product was named Reina Victoria. Funds generated by the stadium's activities enabled Pontificia Universidad Católica to undertake repair work on the university's central campus. At that time, the university represented the football club in negotiations, during the transition from amateur to professional era of Universidad Católica in Chilean football. The venue came to be remembered by its official name, Estadio Universidad Católica.

History

References

Further reading

Spanish