Estadio Monumental History

Lore & Background

The Club Atlético River Plate was founded in 1901 and by 1934, it had won two championships. At the time, the club was nicknamed Los Millonarios because of the purchase of forward Carlos Peucelle for whom River had paid a huge amount of money. On 31 October 1934, River Plate purchased the land where the club was to build the new stadium in the neighbourhood of Belgrano. The stadium was built on land reclaimed from the marshy coast.

On 25 May 1935, the cornerstone was laid on the Centennial (now Figueroa Alcorta) and Río de la Plata (Udaondo) Avenues. On 1 December of that year, the Steering Committee presented the approved project in detail to its members at an assembly. They obtained a loan of $2,500,000 from the government and on 27 September 1936, construction began under the direction of architects José Aslan and Héctor Ezcurra. The initial cost of work reached $4,479,545.80, but was reduced to about 3 million dollars when the committee decided to halt the construction of the north end due to a lack of adequate funds.

The stadium was inaugurated on Wednesday 26 May, amidst a crowd of approximately 70,000 people. The next day, nearly 68,000 spectators were present. After various activities the evening ended with a match between River Plate and Uruguay team Peñarol, with a 3–1 victory for the home squad. Estadio Monumental was redeveloped from 2020 to 2023 and removed the long existing athletic track and added more seats, bringing the front seats closer to the pitch.

The existing wooden seats were also removed, with 40,565 set aside for sale. The stadium partially reopened in February 2023. River Plate drew an average home attendance of 83,812 in their first league season after the expansion. The Estadio Monumental currently has a capacity of 84,567, making it the largest in South America.

In 2022, the stadium's naming rights were purchased by supermarket chain ChangoMâs. In January 2026, it was announced that the Estadio Monumental would undergo an expansion to increase its capacity to 101,000, including a roof, estimated to take around 36 months and cost around $100 million.

Reader's Guide

The stadium is located in the Belgrano neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. It is the home of River Plate and also hosts the Argentina national football team. It hosted the 1978 FIFA World Cup Final between Argentina and the Netherlands, four finals of the Copa América (most recently in 2011), and many finals of the Copa Libertadores. It also hosted the closing ceremonies and athletics events of the 1951 Pan American Games. Rugby union matches featuring the Argentina national rugby union team, Los Pumas, also take place occasionally on this field. When an international performing artist or band visits Buenos Aires, concerts are usually held in this stadium, as it is the biggest in the city and in all of Argentina.

Did You Know?

• The stadium was originally designed with four double decker stands but was left with a horseshoe shape due to insufficient funds.
• The horseshoe was partially enclosed in 1958, financed by the transfer of Omar Sivori to Juventus, increasing capacity to 90,000.
• San Lorenzo brought more than 70,000 people to River's stadium in a 1982 second division match against Tigre.
• In 1975, when River played Racing for the title after an 18-year drought, 100,000 were present.
• The total length of the seating in the stands is over 70 kilometers.