| The Estadio Mario Alberto Kempes, formerly known as Estadio Córdoba, is a stadium in the Chateau Carreras neighborhood of Córdoba, Argentina. Owned by the Córdoba Province, the venue is used mostly for association football and rugby union matches and also sometimes for athletics.
The stadium was built in 1976 in preparation for the 1978 FIFA World Cup, with a capacity for 37,851 spectators although it does not provide seating for all of them, like many Argentine stadiums.
Most football teams in Córdoba have their own stadiums but they usually prefer playing in this stadium for its size and comfort, especially when playing important games that attract big crowds. Generally, this stadium is used for Talleres' matches, and is used for Belgrano's, Instituto's and Racing's matches. The Argentina national football team home matches have also been played here.
In 2006 and 2007 the stadium hosted some Special Stages of Rally Argentina, a round of the World Rally Championship.
During 2010 and 2011 the stadium went through a remodelling process. The field was sunken 4 metres, the iconic Autotrol scoreboards installed for the 1978 World Cup were replaced with modern video screens, new stands were built to improve the poor view caused by the shallow shape of the stadium and the capacity was increased to 57,000, becoming the third largest stadium in Argentina by seating capacity. It was re-opened on 26 June 2011, just 5 days before the start of the 2011 Copa América. Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License - Full article |