The National Stadium of Costa Rica is a multi-purpose stadium in La Sabana Metropolitan Park, San José, Costa Rica. It is the first modern sport and event arena to be built in Central America. The stadium was completed in 2011 and officially opened its doors to the public on March 26 that year, with a capacity of 35,175 seats. The stadium replaced the original National Stadium, and is the home stadium of the Costa Rica national football team. It has one high-definition screen, located in the southern section of the stadium, along with a smaller monochromatic screen, and another monochromatic screen of the same dimensions in the northern section. It was used to host matches during the 2014 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, including the opening game, the third place match and the Final. It will be used to host matches during the 2020 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup with the country and Panama, including the opening game and the Final.
Funding and Construction
Although the cost was programmed at the beginning to around $88 million, this was later adjusted to $100 million. The Chinese government financed the construction of the stadium in its totality, along with its furnishing, and assumed all other costs. Demolition of the old National Stadium began May 12 of 2008, after the match between UCR and Brujas FC and the 200M event where Nery Brenes set a new national record. The construction of the stadium formed part of the agreements signed between the presidents of Costa Rica and China, Óscar Arias and Hu Jintao, respectively, during Arias' first visit to the Asian country in October 2007. The construction began on March 12, 2009, and finished in 2011. The Chinese company Anhui Foreign Economic Construction was charged with the construction of the stadium and brought 800 Chinese labourers to complete the work.
Inauguration
The inauguration ceremony was celebrated on March 26, 2011. National and international sports activities and entertainment went on through April 10. An official stadium inauguration website was created, which informed the population of all inaugurating events. The main inaugurating event was a friendly association football match between Costa Rica and China, which ended 2-2, with Álvaro Saborío scoring the first goal ever in the stadium. During 2011, the new stadium was subject of a heavy investment made by the Costa Rican Football Federation to propel Costa Rican football into the world scene. To do this, the federation organized friendly matches against previous FIFA World Cup winnersArgentina, Brazil, and Spain, with the latter being the then most recent winners of the tournament.
El Nacional hosted nine games of the 2014 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. It hosted four Group A matches; including the opener, a Group C and Group D game, two quarterfinal matches, the 3rd place play-off and the final. The games were:
During the opening ceremony of the 2013 Central American Games, a fire broke out in the stadium because of a stray firework which hit the western part of the stadium roof. The fire damaged some lighting equipments but the stadium was still used for the Games.
