By Mark Baber
September 18 – Athletic Bilbao celebrated their first game in their new San Mamés stadium with a 3-2 win over Celta Vigo in the driving rain on Monday night.
Athletic had occupied the old San Mamés for a hundred years, before the demolition of the oldest stadium in the league started at the end of last season. They played the first home game of this season at Real Sociedad’s Anoeta.
On Friday, a training session was held in the new stadium in front of 10,000 people. On Monday, it was three-quarters finished and opened with 36,700 spectators. When the fourth stand is built the new stadium will hold 41,000, and is already sure to be a sell-out with fans having to take out a subscription to have any chance of tickets.
After the game Bilbao coach Ernesto Valverde said, “Let’s see if it’s a good omen for us,”
“The stadium is incredible and it will be even better when it’s finished.”
The old stadium was popularly known as “the cathedral” and the club has gone to great lengths to pay homage to its history and to recreate the same Basque spirit in the new stadium which is located next to the old stadium.
The new stadium has cost €173 million with Kutxabank, the provincial Diputación and the Basque government having provided €50 million each, while Athletic paid €33 million and the Bilbao council €11 million.
The project was approved in March 2006 with construction starting in June 2010. The architects are César Azkarate and Mikel Sanz de Prit with the structural engineer being ACXT Idom.
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