Featured image credit: Rob Ridley
Spanish LaLiga club Atlético de Madrid has partnered with development and investment firm López Real Inversiones to support its plans for a Ciudad del Deporte (Sports City) project.
Atlético and López Real Inversiones will each contribute €80m (£66.3m/$83.6m) towards the construction of the complex, according to Spanish newspaper Cinco Dias. It is hoped that work on the project will begin in the coming months, with a view to the complex being operational by 2026.
López Real Inversiones is owned by entrepreneur José Luis López Fernandez. The company is set to support Atlético with design proposals for the Sports City, as well as take the lead on securing potential partners that would have a presence in the complex.
In May last year, it emerged that the budget for Atlético’s Sports City project had risen to around €350m. A price tag of around €200m had initially been attached to the project, which will include shops, a supermarket, a bowling alley, leisure and sports facilities, cinemas, a children’s area and restaurants, along with residential space for players in Atlético’s youth academy.
The complex will be built around Atlético’s home stadium, Riyadh Air Metropolitano. It will span a total area of 265,000 square metres, distributed among five plots, two of which will be designated for municipal use.
Madrid City Council has transferred the land to Atlético for a period of 75 years in exchange for the club overseeing investment. José Luis Martínez-Almeida, the Mayor of Madrid, initially announced in July 2022 that the City Council would give the green light to the project.
In June last year, Atlético said that its majority shareholder, Atlético Holdco, would pump €50m into the club to ensure the costs of developing the area around the stadium do not impact on the team. It has been reported that as much as €258m of the funding will come from the LaLiga Impulso venture, a fund set up to help Spanish clubs with stadium infrastructure projects.
Last month, Atlético entered into a joint venture with Oak View Group (OVG) and Live Nation in an effort to repurpose the mothballed aquatics centre development that is located adjacent to the Metropolitano.
The aquatics centre was part of Madrid’s bid to host the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, with the Spanish capital ultimately losing out to Rio de Janeiro. Work commenced on the project, but was abandoned in 2010 following the failed Olympic bid.
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