CA Osasuna launched an ambitious project to renovate the club’s El Sadar home in 2018 with a view to increasing its capacity, modernising facilities and offering supporters a more comfortable match experience.
Two years on from the launch of the project, which has represented a massive transformation for the Pamplona-based outfit, El Sadar has been nominated for the Stadium of the Year prize, which is awarded by Stadium Database, a website dedicated to international sports arenas that bestows the distinction on the world’s best stadium each year.
As part of the process to select the winner of the award, now into its 12th edition, the nominated stadiums are presented and their standout features are analysed from different perspectives, including commercial aspects and the fan experience.
In response to El Sadar’s nomination, Mikel Vivanco, head of operations at CA Osasuna, commented: “We’re proud to be amongst the nominees for this award. We had a fairly tight budget to work with, but we’ve got the absolute most out of it and the end result is amazing.”
The Navarran club are the only LaLiga representatives in this prestigious shortlist, which comprises 23 leading sports arenas located in an array of countries including Qatar, Iraq, Turkey, Argentina, Ecuador, the USA, Germany and Cambodia.
Los Rojillos’ sparkling home faces stiff competition to secure the international crown from arenas such as Qatar’s Al Bayt Stadium, which involved an investment 30 times greater than El Sadar and houses 60,000 fans, and Lower.com Field in the USA, which despite benefiting from a budget 12 times bigger than CA Osasuna’s, accommodates 3,000 fewer fans. The winning stadium will be decided by a public vote hosted on the Stadium Database website, with users able to cast their votes up until 14 March.
A top-level multifunctional sports stadium
El Sadar, which was originally built in 1967, has undergone a much-needed renovation that has involved a considerable facelift and a capacity increase. The original stadium structure has been retained and used as the foundation to create a modern and striking ground that boasts a capacity of over 23,500 and a roof in the club’s iconic red tone.
Amongst the various improvements overseen by the Navarran club, besides those related to the structure itself, such as the roof, of particular significance are those that have a direct impact on the fan experience, with entry points created for reduced-mobility supporters, considerable improvements made in terms of visibility, seating and the stadium stands, and, in particular, the increased capacity.
“The stadium redevelopment has enabled us to increase the number of seats that we can sell thanks to the capacity increase. However, no matter how many times we increase the capacity, the CA Osasuna phenomenon just keeps on growing,” insisted Vivanco.
The club also revealed that the renovation has had a major impact on its commercial operations. For example, the club store previously spanned an area of 1,400m2 and the redevelopment work has added nearly a further 2,000m2 to the facility.
There have also been makeovers to the press area, the officials’ dressing room, the media room, the presidential area, whilst the marketing and communication departments are now housed in new offices and a multi-use meeting room has been built.
In reference to CA Osasuna’s new home, the club’s director general, Fran Canal, noted that, “a facility of this standing simply has to be multifunctional, whilst it also has to offer leisure areas and make club members feel as if they’re at home and in a modern stadium.”
Nomination rewards teamwork & club members’ involvement
The fact that El Sadar features amongst the nominated stadiums following its renovation and capacity increase, which were carried out on a limited budget, represents deserved recognition for the hours of effort put in by the club’s maintenance, communications and infrastructure staff and all of the other teams involved in the project.
Meanwhile, it’s worth highlighting that the club’s members were actively involved in choosing the stadium design and were engaged throughout the process as they offered a transparent viewpoint into which was the preferred project, whilst also sharing their opinions and ideas for improvement.
“This renovation comes on the back of a consultation process with our club members, who actually chose the final project, which just goes to show that this truly belongs to everyone. It fills us with pride to think that a stadium project chosen by our club members is in the running to be crowned as the best in the world,” added Vivanco.
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