Boca gains major lift for La Bombonera plans

Argentine Primera División football club Boca Juniors has seen a major impediment to its ambitions of enhancing its stadium removed with the Buenos Aires City Legislature electing to exclude the facility from the list of protected properties in the capital.

The authority yesterday (Thursday) announced Estadio Alberto José Armando, more commonly known as La Bombonera, as one of four sports facilities removed from the 4,300-strong list, the others being Estadio Mâs Monumental, the home of arch rival River Plate, and two properties belonging to fellow Primera División outfit, Club Atlético Huracán.

The four facilities were proposed to be added to the list, which in Boca’s case would have prevented any significant structural modification if La Bombonera was declared a protected historical monument.

Boca had challenged the proposal and now seems to have won out. Edgardo Alifraco, a former Boca executive and current legislator, told Olé: “La Bombonera is a stadium inaugurated on May 25, 1940. Let’s think about the number of members Boca Juniors had in 1940 and the number it has today (more than 320,000).

“It is impossible to freeze the possibility of renovations and expansion of this type of property. That is why we have withdrawn these properties from consideration in the final text.”

In recent years, many proposals have come to light to either expand the historic 57,000-capacity stadium, which last received significant renovation in 1996, or build a new home for Boca.

In August 2023, Boca made the first significant formal move to expand its stadium, by submitting a proposal to the Legislature of the City of Buenos Aires. Former president, Jorge Amor Ameal, lodged a proposal with the City seeking the green light to pursue a project that would expand capacity to 82,000.

Boca legend, Juan Román Riquelme, is now at the helm as president, with yesterday’s news set to allow his administration to proceed with plans for the stadium. Recent weeks have seen various reports concerning Boca’s apparent ambitions for La Bombonera.

Página 12 said the club’s current plans centre on boosting capacity to 82,000 by raising the height of the playing field and adding a fourth tier to the stadium.