Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica (2011)

Estadio Nacional

La Joya de La Sabana[1]
Location	San José
Coordinates	9°56′11″N 84°6′28″W / 9.93639°N 84.10778°W / 9.93639; -84.10778Coordinates: 9°56′11″N 84°6′28″W / 9.93639°N 84.10778°W / 9.93639; -84.10778
Capacity	35,175 [2]
Surface	Grass
Scoreboard	Yes
Construction
Broke ground	2008
Built	2009–2011
Opened	March 26, 2011[3]
Construction cost	US$110 million
General contractor	Anhui Foreign Economic Construction
Tenants
Costa Rica national football team 2013 Copa Centroamericana 2013 Central American Games 2014 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup

The National Stadium of Costa Rica (Spanish: Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica) is a multi-purpose stadium in La Sabana Metropolitan Park, San José, Costa Rica. It is the first modern sport and event arena to be built in Central America.^[4] The stadium was completed in 2011 and officially opened its doors to the public on Saturday, March 26 of that same year, with a capacity of 35,175 seats.^[2][4] The stadium replaces the original National Stadium. It also serves as the home stadium of the Costa Rica national football team.^[5]

It has one high-definition 160-square-metre (1,700 sq ft) screen, located in the southern section of the stadium, along with a smaller monochromatic screen, and another monochromatic screen of the same dimensions in the northern section.^[6]

It was used to host matches during the 2014 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, including the opening game, the third place match and the Final.

Funding and Construction

Although the cost was programmed at the beginning to around $88 million, this was later adjusted to $100 million.^[7]

The Chinese government financed the construction of the stadium in its totality, along with its furnishing, and assumed all other costs.^[8] Demolition of the old National Stadium began May 12 of 2008, after the match between UCR (Universidad de Costa Rica) and Brujas FC^[9] and the 200M event where Nery Brenes set a new national record (20:28 seconds).

The construction of the stadium formed part of the agreements signed between the presidents of Costa Rica and China, Óscar Arias and Hu Jintao, respectively, during Arias' first visit to the Asian country in October 2007.^[10] The construction began on March 12, 2009 and finished in 2011.

The Chinese company Anhui Foreign Economic Construction^[5] was charged with the construction of the stadium and brought 800 Chinese labourers to complete the work.

Inauguration

The inauguration ceremony was celebrated on the night of Saturday, March 26, 2011. National and international sports activities and entertainment went on through April 10. An official stadium inauguration web site was created,^[11] which informed the population of all inaugurating events.

The main inaugurating event was a friendly association football match between Costa Rica and China, which ended 2-2, with Álvaro Saborío scoring the first goal ever in the stadium.

During 2011, the new stadium was subject of a heavy investment made by the Costa Rican Football Federation, with the objective of propel Costa Rican football into the world scene. In order to do this, the federation organized friendly matches against previous FIFA World Cup winners Argentina, Brazil and Spain, with the latter being the then most recent winners of the tournament.^[12]

Football tournaments

2013 Copa Centroamericana

The National Stadium hosted all 14 matches of the 2013 Central American Cup.

Date	Team #1	Result	Team #2	Round	Attendance
January 18, 2013	Guatemala	1–1	Nicaragua	Group A (opening match)	200
	Honduras	1–1	El Salvador	Group B	2,500
	Costa Rica	1–0	Belize	Group A	5,484
January 20, 2013	Belize	0–0	Guatemala	Group A	250
	El Salvador	0–0	Panama	Group B
	Costa Rica	2–0	Nicaragua	Group A	5,980
January 22, 2013	Nicaragua	1–2	Belize	Group A	750
	Panama	1–1	Honduras	Group B	3,450
	Costa Rica	1–1	Guatemala	Group A	6,760
January 25, 2013	Guatemala	1–3	Panama	5th Place Match	279
	Honduras	1–0	Belize	Semifinals	1,664
	Costa Rica	1–0	El Salvador		4,993
January 27, 2013	El Salvador	1–0	Belize	3rd place match	1,997
	Costa Rica	1–0	Honduras	Final	14,146

2014 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup

El Nacional hosted nine games of the 2014 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. It hosted four Group A matches; including the opener, a Group C and Group D game, two quarterfinal matches, the 3rd place play-off and the final. The games were:

Date	Team #1	Result	Team #2	Round	Attendance
Saturday March 15, 2014	Italy	2–0	Zambia	Group A (opening match)	34,453
	Costa Rica	0–3	Venezuela	Group A
Tuesday March 18, 2014	Venezuela	4–0	Zambia		25,624
	Costa Rica	0–1	Italy
Sunday March 23, 2014	Japan	3–0	New Zealand	Group C	5,100
	Nigeria	3–0	Mexico	Group D
Thursday March 27, 2014	Venezuela	3–2	Canada	Quarter-finals	1,812
	Ghana	2–2 (4–3 on pen.)	Italy
Friday April 4, 2014	Venezuela	4–4 (2–0 on pen.)	Italy	Third place match	29,814
	Japan	2–0	Spain	Final

Concerts

In 2011, Shakira headlined a concert at the stadium on 10 April. Miley Cyrus performed on 21 May and the Red Hot Chili Peppers performed on 12 September. Pearl Jam played on 20 November,^[13] and Judas Priest and Whitesnake played on 27 September.

In 2012, Elton John performed on 3 February^[14] and Lady Gaga played on 3 November, in front of 29,014 people.^[15]

On 13 March 2014 Paul McCartney announced his first ever concert in Costa Rica, to be held on May 1, 2014.^[16]

In July 2017, Guns N' Roses announced that they will be playing at Estadio Nacional on November 26, 2016.^[17]

Fire incident

During the opening ceremony of the 2013 Central American Games, a fire broke out in the stadium because of a stray firework which hit the western part of the stadium roof.^[18] The fire damaged some lighting equipments but the stadium was still used for the Games.^[19]

References

External links

• World Stadiums page