Estadio Azul

Lore & Background

In summer 2016, Mexico City authorities announced plans to demolish the stadium would begin at the end of the 2017–2018 Liga MX season. However, in July 2018, the demolition project was put on hold. In the 2023–24 Liga MX season, Cruz Azul returned to the stadium. On 2 November 2024, local authorities closed the stadium indefinitely due to a lack of required safety certifications and issues with the stadium's infrastructure. The closure caused schedule disruptions for Cruz Azul and Atlante. The stadium reopened on 7 November with new regulations such as an increase in security personnel at both the Estadio Ciudad de los Deportes and the Plaza de Toros, promotion of public transport to reach the venues, and the prohibition of holding two events on the same day. Atlante announced they would move to Estadio Agustín "Coruco" Díaz in Zacatepec, Morelos.

In Their Own Story

The bus groans up the ramp and the first thing you hear is the hum. Not a cheer—a hum. Low, tectonic, coming up through the soles of your boots as you step off the platform. The air smells of cut grass, diesel from the service vehicles, and the faint chemical tang of the concrete walls sweating in the late-afternoon heat. A kid in a faded blue jersey, maybe ten, presses his face to the chain-link fence of the lower tier and screams a name you can't quite catch over the drone. The keeper bounces the ball. The net ripples. Three hundred thousand pairs of eyes—no, thirty-three thousand, but it feels like three hundred—track the leather as it arcs. The hum swells. The blue seats blur into a single wave. And for ninety minutes, the factory floor is the only thing that exists.

Reader's Guide

Following the arrival of Cruz Azul, there have been many renovations to make the stadium safer, more comfortable, and appropriate to the needs of fans. Among these amenities are: Two professional football locker rooms, two locker rooms for referees, a press conference room with seating capacity for 50 people, a closed-circuit video system including seventy cameras. Estadio Ciudad de los Deportes holds 34,253 people, including 92 boxes.

Did You Know?

• Both times Mexico hosted the World Cup, Estadio Azul did not host matches mainly due to the age of the structure, bad parking facilities, and complex traffic patterns.
• A peculiarity of this stadium is that it is built as a pit with the playing field below street level.
• Just beside the stadium is the Plaza México, the world's largest bullring.