About

Atlé­tico Madrid’s new Wanda Metro­po­li­tano stadium, with a capa­city of 68,000 spec­ta­tors, is the result of the expan­sion of the former athle­tics stadium of the Commu­nity of Madrid (Estadio de la Comu­nidad de Madrid) finished back in 1994. The former buil­ding had also been desi­gned by CyO to accom­mo­date athle­tics compe­ti­tions and foot­ball matches, with an appro­xi­mate capa­city of 19,000 spec­ta­tors.

The surface area of the current stadium is 54,537 m² and the entire grounds are 88,150 m². CyO was commis­sioned in order to reach a capa­city of 68,000 spec­ta­tors and thus build a foot­ball stadium with the UEFA “5 star certi­fi­ca­tion” to host Euro­pean finals like the Cham­pions League Final on 1 June 2019.

Further­more, it was also neces­sary to create an image that could be iden­ti­fied with main user Atlé­tico de Madrid Foot­ball Club.

Characteristics

In the design of the new stadium, the visi­bi­lity of and proxi­mity to pitch and players have been a prio­rity. The strong recom­men­da­tions of UEFA and FIFA have also been considered. The closest point to the touch­line is situated in the North-Eastern corner where the stands are barely 5.89 meters away from the pitch. The exten­sion also had to meet a series of very specific condi­tions regar­ding tech­nical requi­re­ments like safety in case of evacua­tion and the specific requi­re­ments gene­rated by high level and risky foot­ball matches.

Concrete, which is respon­sible for the load-bearing struc­ture of the buil­ding and its final form, contri­butes to the main charac­te­ristics of unifor­mity and homo­ge­nity.

Lowering levels

The new pitch was built lowe­ring the level of the original pitch in a way that allows spec­ta­tors to get closer to the action without distur­bing visi­bi­lity condi­tions. The most important areas have been placed on the original stand given its symbolic nature, such as the area for players, presi­dency, VIPs and the press.

The expan­sion area predicts the neces­sary spaces for spec­tator services such as bars, toilets, shops etc. The cons­truc­tion also includes two under­ground floors, the first of which to serve the needs of the lower stands and parking and the second desi­gned enti­rely for parking. The stadium offers 4,000 parking spaces for fans (1,000 inside the buil­ding.)

Stand extension

The original stadium was built with only the western stand. After comple­tion, new stands surround the entire pitch: the lower tier, the middle tier, and the upper or third tier. Between second and third tier, the private boxes are located.

CyO opted for the solu­tion in which the stands would not be accessed through corri­dors but through the higher part of the last row. This means that spec­ta­tors already get a phan­ta­stic view of the playing field when ente­ring the inner bowl. In this way, a full image of the stadium, an all-around audi­ence as close as possible to the pitch has been achieved.

The stands consists of

• lower tier composed of 28 rows, with a capa­city of 23,000 spec­ta­tors
• middle tier of 13 stands for VIPs with access from 0.00m level and capa­city for 14,000 spec­ta­tors
• upper tier supported on a peri­meter buil­ding of 32 rows that, along with the current stand of the Peineta, offer a total capa­city for 30,200 spec­ta­tors. Here, public access, VIP boxes and comple­men­tary services (toilets, bars etc.) are located.

A conti­nuous bay has also been built, over­han­ging the lower part of the upper stand, with 94 boxes with a capa­city of appro­xi­m­ately 1,500 spec­ta­tors. Simi­larly, booths have been made available for the press located in the current boxes of the Peineta for a total of 150 commen­ta­tors.

The roof

The roof is one of the iconic elements of the new stadium and was carried out in colla­bo­ra­tion with Schlaich Berger­mann und Partner. For CyO, the roof is the formally important element that completes the stadium. It is a homo­ge­ni­zing element that unites former stadium and exten­sion, cove­ring all spec­ta­tors. The roof has appro­xi­mate dimen­sions of 286 meters between the north and south ends and 248 meters east-west. In fact, its total surface area is about 46,500 m².

The main struc­ture of the roof is composed of an exte­rior double compres­sing ring of steel and an inte­rior double trac­tion ring and two groups of radial cables. The light roof protects 96% of the spec­ta­tors like a big blanket adap­ting diffe­rent situa­tions and provi­ding unity. Its design is included in the typo­logy of tensile struc­tures.

The roof consists of membranes of fibre glass and Poly­te­traf­luo­roethy­lene (also called PFTE or Teflon), a trans­lucid mate­rial that has been used in other big stadiums like Mara­caná or the Olym­pia­sta­dion Berlin.

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