National Stadium Celebrates 1st Anniversary

Today, one year later, the new stadium has changed the landscape of the park and the surrounding area immensely. At the northeast corner of the park, the empty parking lot and the semblance of what used to be called a stadium are gone, replaced by a concrete and steel monster overshadowing the remaining pine tress that have not been cut down.

From Ezcazú, the curved roof of the unfinished roof is now part of the skyline as you look east, in between the buildings. Looking over your shoulder on the Circunvalación or heading into San José on the General Cañas, the new stadium is imposing on the landscape.

Some of the other changes in the area, all due to the new stadium, are the empty lots in an around the park that are slowly being converted into parking areas, diminishing the planned developments announced in the past couple of years.

To mark the anniversary a number of activities are being planned on the site, which would include the customary display of pyrotechnics.

The Anhui Foreign Economic Construction (AFEC), the contractor of the new stadium, promised it would be ready in February 2011.

To achieve the goal work at the stadium is around the clock by the 723 workers imported from China.

Last December, a symbolic ceremony was held where the government of China handed over the stadium to the government of Costa Rica.

The us$83 million dollar stadium, a gift of Beijing to San José, will be the most modern in Central America and house 35.142 fans.

The new building stands on the site of the original staidum what was inaugurated on December 29, 1924 and modernized in 1942.

The demolition of the old stadium began on May 11, 2008.


Fish eye view of the stadium by 360cities.net




Little planet view of the stadium by 360cities.net

Click here to see the stadium from all the angles.