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It seems that it's near the agreement between the Club Atlético de Madrid, SAD and the City Hall of Madrid. Atlético would leave their stadium next to the Manzanares river to play in the stadium built for Madrid Olympic project(candidate for the year 2012).

Obviously this stadium would have initially an athletics track and a capacity for 66,000 people aproximately. After the year 2012, the ground would be deeper, so the athletics track would disappear and the capacity would be increased to 73,000 people aproximately.

A group of fans are totally against this operation because it would mean to lose the most important property of the club, the historical and 5 stars stadium, Vicente Calderon. On the other hand, this operation would clear the debt of the club.

Press report:

Atletico to sell stadium

MADRID: Cash-strapped Spanish Primera Liga outfit Atletico Madrid are preparing to sell their Vicente Calderon stadium to cover debts amounting to 270 million euros (US$335 million), it was reported here yesterday.

Atletico have created a company with assets worth 226.2m euros - the estimated value of the Calderon - with the aim of selling the site once it has been rezoned residential by local authorities, the Expansion newspaper claimed.

The club, whose leading shareholder and former president Jesus Gil died in May, will move to the La Peineta Olympic stadium while awaiting the construction of another venue.

The debts of Atletico Madrid, currently sixth in the Spanish first division, include 66 million euros in unpaid taxes.

Real Madrid carried out a similar operation in 2001 selling their training ground at the Ciudad Deportiva to the city to pay off debts of 380 million euros. – AFP

 

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By the way, what will happen to the Calderon? Will it be demolished completely?

The City Hall of Madrid wants to make a make up in that zone, so if it's finally done, it will be demolished, recall that the M-30 goes behind one of the tribunes of the stadium.

In any case, today Gil Marin have said that they don't want to sell the Calderon. Personally, I don't believe it, they were looking for something like this since long ago. Now that Jesus Gil is dead, the politicians are ready to talk about it. I know that there are economical differences, but Atlético has already created a company to make the operation. Atlético wants something like this to clear their debt and the city of Madrid don't want to leave La Peineta empty, so I think it's only a matter of time.

Setzer, yes, the Calderon is a 5 star stadium.

 

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Is there any new news from out Spain surrounding Dutch media tycoon John de Mol who wants to buy Calderón? It seemed to be quite concrete some days ago.

De Mol wants a controlling interest and is willing to pay an amount between the €250 and €350 million. If he will succeed, he is considering to sell the stadium since the ground seems to be expensive and with it start to build a new stadium elsewhere in Madrid.

It's all about business huh.. :sigh:

I didn't hear anything, but there are several things:
-The zone where is the Calderon is quite good, not as good as the Bernabeu's location, but still good. So the lands are very worthy. I don't know how much, but a lot of millions.

-By now, the lands can only be used for sport purposes. It means that you can buy the Calderon, but you can't build there. You need that Madrid's City Hall re-calificates the land for other purposes and they will only do it if the operation is good for the city too.

I'm not sure that this John de Mol could buy the lands because I think that the city of Madrid wanted them for I don't know what. There's highway behind one of the tribunes and I think they wanted to do something there.

If I were atletico, I would be worried if the Gil family and Cerezo make this operation. They've proven that they're a cancer for the club. Atletico is by far the 3rd club of Spain with probably the most loyal fan base of Spain and they almost finish with it. If they suddenly have 300 million € to spend, I don't know what they'd do.

 

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It's done. It actually looks good without the athletics track.