Everything You Need to Know About Atletico Madrid's Summer 2017 Stadium Move

As we’ve seen elsewhere recently, when clubs move from one stadium to another, it can often be an emotional experience, with fans forced to leave behind memories and routines that had come to form a huge part of their lives.

In the Premier League, we saw West Ham United’s tearful goodbye to Upton Park at the end of last season, while Tottenham Hotspur will bid farewell to the present White Hart Lane at the conclusion of the current campaign.

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And that’ll be the case for Atletico Madrid at the end of this season, too, when the doors will be closed on the Estadio Vicente Calderon for the final time before the ground is demolished and sold off for housing.

Atletico are moving to the site of the Estadio La Peineta—also known as the Estadio Olimpico de Madrid—for the start of 2017/18.

With the building work taking place and at the start of what is sure to be an emotional season for the club, here’s everything you need to know about the switch.

How Big is the New Stadium?

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According to the official Atletico Madrid website, the new stadium—which is likely to be given a naming partner for those ever-present commercial reasons—will hold approximately 67,000 spectators, meaning almost 12,000 more fans will be in attendance than for a match at the Calderon.

The old Estadio La Peineta—an athletics stadium—held just 20,000 spectators, and the plan was initially to renovate it for the Olympics had Madrid won one of the three bids they’ve entered in recent years, but unfortunately they lost out to London in 2012, Rio in 2016 and Tokyo for the 2020 Games.

As always with these types of ventures, the corporate aspect of things has to be catered for, and Atletico claim that "the VIP experience at the new stadium will be at the level of the best in the world," adding: "The generous size of the spaces, the quality of services, the accessibility through dedicated elevators and the parking available inside the stadium will guarantee a different way of experiencing the sport live."

Where is It?

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The new ground is situated around 20 minutes’ drive east of the Calderon, in the Rosas district of Madrid.

The stadium could become a favourite of football tourists given its fairly close proximity to Madrid’s Barajas Airport in the affluent north-east of the city.

It will also be well-served by public transport given that the Estadio Olimpico Metro stop places you just outside the ground, and there are further options to get to the stadium via Madrid Metro lines 2, 5 and 7.

Why are Atletico Madrid Moving?

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This has been a fairly hot topic, given that the Vicente Calderon was only opened in 1967 and renovated in 1982, meaning it is hardly ancient.

In the face of some criticism from fans, Atletico have devoted a fairly lengthy paragraph to the subject of moving on their club website, where they stated:

"

The club has grown extraordinarily since it moved to the Vicente Calderon. In it, we have experienced unforgettable games, as we had previously enjoyed them at the Metropolitano and in the rest of our team’s historical venues.

The move to the Manzanares [where the Calderon is based] was due to the club’s desire to be more competitive and offer a better experience to our fans. The move to the new stadium picks up that ball in order to take one more step to improve the access and evacuation routes, offering more parking space, a different shopping and eating experience and, above all, better comfort and visibility to all audiences inside the building.

The Atletico fans deserve the best. And the new stadium should rise to the task. 

"

However, there is a strong sense of sadness among the fans, who perhaps—in a similar state of affairs to West Ham and Tottenham supporters—aren’t quite ready to say goodbye yet.

When interviewing fans outside the Calderon as they chose their seats for season tickets in the new stadium, AS reported one supporter as saying: "There’s a strange feeling coming here now. It’s the last year that we’ll be here, there’s a lot of nostalgia."

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However, another fan said: "[The move] won’t change our spirit, but it will modernise the club and make us grow. It’s going to have a very positive influence in terms of competing with biggest teams."

That positive influence will extend to the club’s bank balance, too.

In a Financial Times article from November 2015, journalist Simon Kuper paid a visit to Madrid to report on the move. He wrote:

"

Building a big stadium is something many clubs do in a fit of hubris during good times. Madrid may not prove rich enough to fund two big clubs. However, Atletico can make a plausible case.

The new stadium, unlike the Calderon, will have lots of parking; it will have restaurants and bars to stop fans spending their money at neighbourhood joints; and 7,500 lucrative corporate seats.

"

It’s an Athletics Stadium, So Does that Mean There’s a Running Track?

No. That bane of a match-going football supporter will not be in existence at the new stadium, with Atletico at pains to point out that, in most cases, the fans will actually be closer to the pitch than they are at the Calderon.

On the website, the club stated:

"

The stadium will not have a running track. In fact, the stands will be very close to the playing field.

In every location, the fans will have the opportunity to experience the match more closely except in the west side, where the distances will be similar to the Calderon's. The closest point to the white line is at the northwest corner, where the grandstands will be located just 5.89 meters away from the playing field.

"

How Will the Rest of Spain and Europe View the Stadium?

The new ground seems to have gone down pretty well, overall. 

The plans and artists’ impressions of the stadium all look impressive, and with the club seemingly determined not to upset such a passionate set of fans, then you can be sure that every match-going supporter will be well catered for.

Atletico seem determined to use the stadium to further their own reputation in the global game, too, with the hope they can perhaps emerge from the shadow of Real Madrid and make a greater commercial impact.

As reported by F. J. Diaz in AS, the club would like to christen their new home by hosting the UEFA Champions League final, either at the end of the club’s first season there in 2018 or in 2019, with the Welsh capital Cardiff set for the showpiece event at the end of this season.

The same reports also state that the Spanish Football Federation is considering the possibility of making the new stadium a permanent home for the Copa del Rey final and not taking the match around the country as they currently do.

You can see the attraction, with the stadium in the nation’s capital and featuring all the mod cons of a 21st-century arena, making it an ideal venue for a final.

First and foremost, it has to be a home for Atletico, though, and although there is understandable apprehension from some about the move, few can deny it is an exciting one.