River Plate to extend stands, build roof over Monumental stadium

Argentine football giant River Plate announced on Tuesday plans to expand and construct a roof over the stands of its legendary home stadium, the Estadio Monumental.  The works will include a new level of stands along the stadium perimeter, increasing its capacity to 101,000. It would make the Monumental — already the largest football stadium in South America — the second-largest football stadium in the world. The works will also include the construction of a metal-and-glass roof to cover the stands. River said the works will take 36 months to complete. The project will cost an estimated US$100 million, although the exact figure is subject to “the outcome of the tender.” According to the club statement, the project will have “two sources of financing.” The first will be a long-term loan from “international financial institutions” at preferential rates. The repayment plan will be “covered by the income generated by the Monumental stadium on an ongoing basis.”  A new commercial contract involving various assets, including the sale of naming rights for the next 10 years, will cover the remaining costs. The club insisted that the development will not affect its operating cash flow and that no more than three home matches will be affected over the 3 years of the project. The club has been working with German engineering company Schlaich Bergermann Partner over the last year to develop a plan that will allow the expansion works and move forward with the call for tenders.  The German company has already worked on some of the most important stadiums in the world, including Atlético Madrid’s Estadio Metropolitano, Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium, and Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. The brand-new stand — which is set to seat 16,000 — will be free for club members to access through the current ticketing system. It will not be included in pre-sale or other means of securing tickets, meaning that it will be off limits for non-members.  According to the club, this is done of “strengthening members’ access to the stadium, which will now have 40% of its seats available at no additional cost to the membership fee.”