Estadio Regional de Antofagasta

History

The idea of building a stadium for the city was born in 1955, with the intention that it could function as host for the shield of the 1962 FIFA World Cup in Chile. The initiative was mainly led by professionals from the city of Antofagasta; Miguel Bascuñán Pavez and Alberto Calvo Nieto, who formed the "Pro-Construction Committee" in 1958 with the aim of concretizing the project. It was obtained that it will be decreed by law (13.080 from the Ministry of the Interior of Chile) that the lands occupied by the then 'Club Hípico de Antofagasta' (Ridding Club) be owned by the municipality of Antofagasta for the construction of the stadium, which will be indemnified in accordance with the law, which Authorized the Municipality of Antofagasta to stipulate the amount to be paid to the 'Club Hípico' By expropriation, the agreement being effective on January 31, 1959 and specifying the action on April 23 of that same year. The amount decreed was 300.000.000 CLP.

On September 30, 1960, the Corporation of Development of Chile (Corfo) gave economic contribution to the municipality of Antofagasta for the construction of the stadium, under the conditions that the payment is before the contribution of the municipality, which formalizes the form of Payment To the municipality and that the constructions of the work began before March 1, 1961. On January 5, 1961, the mayor of the city, Santiago Gajardo, handed over the land to the company of Santiago de Chile, Wedeles, Balmaceda, Mathieu y Cía. Ltda. Officially the works began on January 18 of that same year. Nevertheless, due to problems it was not possible to be fulfilled in the stipulated time due to financial problems the termination of the stadium to be able to be host of the worldwide one, reason why its construction was postponed for the 3 of July 1961, where began the disarmament of the 'Club Hípico'.

On October 8, 1961 the stadium was inaugurated, with the presence of authorities such as the president of the republic, Jorge Alessandri, then-mayor of the city, Juan Floreal Recabarren and his predecessor Santiago Gajardo. The trade closed that day at noon, asking also that private companies could enable their workers to attend the event. Attendance at the event was approximately 32,000 people. The stadium at that time was the second largest in the country. The match of the event was between Unión Bellavista (Local team) and Club Deportivo Universidad Católica. On October 12, that same year, a game was played between the teams of the city of Antofagasta and Chuquicamata, which was attended by approximately 16,000 spectators. The result was 4 - 2, in favor of the team of Antofagasta

On July 7, 1965, the 'Comité Pro-Construction Estadio Regional' announced to the mayor, Juan Floreal Recabarren, the dissolution of the association, forming another grouping for the lighting of the stadium. The company 'Chile Exploration Company' donated US $100,000 to finance the luminaires.

In 1996, the athletic track of the venue was installed, the track was 6 lanes. On the same year. The first game registered by Club de Deportes Antofagasta Portuario, valid for national tournaments, exercising of local, was in the encounter between Club Lister Rossel de Linares and Portuario, beating to this first one by 2-1.

In February 1967 a youth football championship was held, in which one of the finalists was the Iquique team.

In October 1987, the stadium hosted the 1987 FIFA World Youth Championship, where the hosts of national teams of West Germany, Bulgaria, United States and Saudi Arabia, all of Group D, played 6 games, Classified the first two mentioned. The first Match of the group D was on October 11, where the United States national team faced Bulgaria, the latter being victorious, with a goal by Dimitar Trendafilov in the 26th minute. Attendance at the stadium was 18,000 spectators. The average audience attendance was 8,417. All games played in this venue were at 17:00 hrs. (UTC−3:00). In order for the stadium to host the event, a large investment had to be invested, such as the investment to improve the field number 5 of the venue, improvements in the stands and in the scoreboard.

In 2001, an audit was carried out to the municipality of the city, carried out by the control division of this entity, which established embezzlement of funds and sickness of a public instrument, all done by a municipal official. That is why it was reported in a newspaper that the mayor of Antofagasta Pedro Araya filed a complaint in the Chilean court this event.

On September 20, 2013, the final of the National Children's Baseball tournament was played at the stadium's baseball field, in which Antofagasta and Iquique met.

In April 2014, the idea was proposed to carry out a friendly match between the national team of Chile and its similar one of Peru, for this the mayor of the city promised to arrange the field before ANFP officials to improve the state Of the court for this match. During the training of both teams. The Manager of Peru decided not to train in the stadium, alluding security problems of this, in addition to the need to make the match without public. The match was finally concrete on April 28 of that year, in which both teams finished tied to a goal. The authors were Luis Fuentes in the 56th minute for the Chile squad and Ysrael Zuniga in the 90th minute for Peru. The attendance was of 32,000 spectators.

In 2005, a friendly match was held in this stadium between the teams of River Plate U-23 and the Chilean U-20 team. With the aim of preparing the national team to the world cup of Holland of that year. The match ends 1 - 0. Gonzalo Higuain was given a chance to change things around.

In 2006, Club de Deportes Antofagasta acquired 650 seats from Brazil, with an investment of 8,000,000 CLP for its installation in the stadium, to commemorate the anniversary of Antofagasta. Along with this fact, the Regional Intendant asked that the stadium be provided with a folder of synthetic grass, in order to improve athletic practices.

That is why the remodeling of the athletic track of the stadium was carried out, increasing the number of lanes from 6 to 8, the material used was Repugol AF. With an investment of 816.212.000 CLP, financed by the Municipality of Antofagasta, Chiledeportes and the Regional Council. Finally the athletic track had to be delivered one year from the start of the remodeling, due to this construction time, the Club de Deportes Antofagasta team had to move to other sports venues to meet their locality.

The institution of Chiledeportes, promised to give a US $3 investment to 5 Chilean stadiums, which included the stadium of Antofagasta, for this also planned to meet with the mayors of the cities chosen to host the 2008 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. In the inspection carried out by the former secretary general of concacaf, Chuck Blazer, the improvement recommendations were submitted to different stadium establishments, with a period of 60 days for the improvement of these elements. Finally it was not possible to specify the idea that the stadium will host the matches of this competition, and even closed their bathrooms, due to low quality of hygiene, by the Ministry of Health of Antofagasta.

On January 22, 2009, the then President of the Republic of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, announced in a public communiqué the presentation of the project "Red de Estadios Bicentenario" in its second phase, in which Antofagasta was inside The cities chosen to make their remodeling to their respective stadiums. The company, Minera Escondida, committed to provide an investment of 8,800,000 USD for the remodeling of the stadium, being the first private company to invest in the Chilean stadium projects "Red de Estadios Bicentenario". This contribution was added to those of the Regional Government, Chiledeportes and Ministry of Public Works. The implementations that would be made in the stadium were; The implementation of an electronic board of last technology, perimeter lighting around the enclosure, dressing rooms, massage rooms, preparatory work area for referees, in addition to the implementation of parking and recreation areas. The first published cornogram stipulated that the beginning of the actions to begin the works would be in the month of August, with the signing of the tripartite agreement between the private company Minera Escondida and the respective public organizations, the opening of bidding in the same month for the Beginning of works in November of the year 2010.

The former mayor of the city, Pedro Araya, along with a group of people linked to sports prompted the baptism of the stadium as "Calvo Bascuñan", in tribute to the promoters of the construction of the stadium. For this the municipality opened a space so that the citizens gave possible names for the enclosure. The option given by the former mayor was to the satisfaction of the council chosen to baptize the stadium. On February 13, 2010, the evaluation committee decided to report on the outcome of the community process of baptizing the stadium, with the winning name being Calvo and Bascuñan.

The Municipal Council processed the remodeling of the stadium in May 2010, by means of an extraordinary section of this organization, which allowed to continue with the corresponding process, the agreement had been left in wait, because it was necessary to regularize that the Minera Escondida entity could contribute in the Reconstruction, because this is a private company and the project was of a public type. In addition it was assigned to the municipality like the one in charge of the administration of the enclosure through the Corporación Municipal de Deportes.

Due to the earthquake in Chile on February 27, 2010, the government decided to allocate the budgeted and committed money for the remodeling of the stadium to the disaster area, which is why the former mayor of the city, Marcela Hernando, expressed her annoyance To what happened. On June 2 of that year, the former mayor received from the National Sports Institute, that this organization will be who finances part of the budgets agreed, the first delivery would be the year 2011 and the second time in 2012, with 62.5% and A 32.5% respectively. The former Secretary of Sports of the nation, Gabriel Ruiz-table, visited the vicinity together with the mayor, ensuring that there will be resources for the remodeling of the stadium, arguing further that the venue should be more than a stadium exclusively for Football events.

The opening for the bidding proposals was opened on June 7, 2010, for that day only one proposal was presented by the company Salfa SA, which proposed either the remodeling by means of the established model, or by doing its own draft. Both proposals exceeded the budget established for remodeling. On June 21 of that year, the economic proposal was opened, being the only proposal in the folder, so a second call for tenders had to be made on 20 November of that year. In November of that year 21 companies were interested in the remodeling of the stadium. At that time it was expected that the term of the works would be on the date of May 2012.

In 2011, the opening for technical proposals was presented. The regional minister, Rodolfo Gómez Acosta, was interviewed in a local environment about the procedure of proposals. With a deadline of 30 days to decide who the company would be. It was stipulated that the opening period would be in July of that same year. The winning proposal was given by the company Valle & Cornejo Arquitectos in addition to the contribution of L2C, with its architect, Nicolás Lipthay. On July 28 of that year, the works were delivered to the construction company Navarrate Díaz Cumsille together with Ingeniería y Construcciones Serinco Limitada for the closing of the site, for the beginning of the works. A term of 360 days was delivered for the term of this. The project only contemplated the main coliseum, since this enclosure counts on 5 fields.

In December 2011, the first delays that the development of the work would have, the delay time corresponded to 2 more months, due to problems with the ground where the foundation of the stadium should be installed, Of bases to support the roof. In October, 2012 again the work had to be delayed, due to the seats that were contemplated for the remodeling of the stadium. At that time, there was an increase of 93%.

In December 2012, the list of cities that would host the Copa America 2015 was officialized, with Antofagasta being one of them. The news was made public through the president of the ANFP Sergio Jadue, after the meeting between the spokesperson of Government, Cecilia Pérez and Undersecretary of Sports, Gabriel Ruiz-Tagle.

On March 20, 2013, the inauguration ceremony was held, this one was private. The former president of the nation of Chile, Sebastián Piñera was in charge of cutting the tape as part of the protocol. The beginning of the public ceremony began with the interpretation of the Philharmonic Orchestra of the city, at 20:00 hours would face Deportes Antofagasta and América de Cali, the group Garras de Amor performed a performance prior to the party of Colo-Colo and Universidad Católica at 22:30. There was annoyance of the public for the high price of the tickets to the opening party. A group of councilors argued that the inaugurations of public places should be free, in addition, being a special moment for the city. The inauguration of the remodeling of the stadium, was marked by the percussion of the team of America of Cali, which had to arrive with hours of delay to the city. So he had to start the game at 0:30 hours.

In August 2013, the Club de Deportes Cobreloa used this stadium to play for the Copa Sudamericana 2013, with matches against Peñarol and La Equidad.

In November, 2014, it was defined the official fixture of Copa America 2015, in which Antofagasta was a venue of this tournament. Through a draw, it was determined who were the National teams who they competed in this stadium, they were; Jamaica, Paraguay and Uruguay. In the date, June 13, 2014 was the first match between the former Champion of this competition, Uruguay and Jamaica, and the following match was in June 16, with Paraguay versus Jamaica. At 16:00 and 18:00 (GTM -3) respectively. In December of this year the director of this event confirmed to Antofagasta and it stadium like the headquarters of Jamaica National Team.

On August 7, 2014, work began, which fulfilled the objective of complementing Conbebol's requirements for the development of the Copa America 2015. The works would be in charge of the company MAC, which won The tender for $4,997,657,850 CLP, delivered by the FNDR to the municipality, with a term of 5 months. In December of that year it was decided to close the enclosure for a period of 30 days to carry out the work, the work plan was delivered by the specialized company Turf Chile, specialized in sports fields. On January 7, 2015, work continued for the contiental tournament, Copa America. The type of seeds used for field No. 1 of the venue were ryegrass and Bermuda. This is in charge of the Johnson Parks consulting company, in addition to the pest control, fertilization and self-leveling works. At that time, the work presented an advance of 46%. On the 20th of that year, the organizing committee of the event inspected the stadium together with the sponsors of the event, with the aim of planning the distribution of advertising in the venue. On the 27th of the same month, the installation of 8 towers with a height of 21 meters, positioned so that the activities that take place at night, are provided with correct lighting. Its luminous capacity of 200 lux. In addition to the installation of a generator for lighting the complex's additional courts.