From the pomp and pageantry of the presentation of the initial project in November 2006 to underground. In a display of lack of transparency, Valencia CF restarted work on a new stadium on Avenida de las Cortes Valencianas this Friday with an event behind closed doors and without giving the option to ask the media, to whom a press release that clears up some doubts about the project, but does not resolve the main one: the final cost of the works that remain to be carried out.
The opacity of the club, whose main shareholder is the Singaporean tycoon, Peter Lim, generated unusual images early in the morning of photojournalists climbing ladders to be able to take images of the machines working in the premises 16 years after being paralyzed, such as and as elDiario.es confirmed in situ.
Nor is it yet known the amount of the credit that Valencia CF negotiates with Goldman Sachs to finance the project, although it is true that the financial director, Inma Ibáñez, confirmed on December 19 after the failed shareholders meeting that It may reach a maximum of 325 million euros, but they estimate that they will need approximately half of this amount.
It is striking that the aforementioned financial entity, one of the most important in the world, agrees to finance the club at a time when it is going through a deep sporting crisis that could take it to the second division, with the loss of income that would entail, and in a moment in which Lim’s president and right-hand woman, Layhoon Chan, has openly acknowledged that her share package is for sale.
The restart of works has also occurred without the promised audit of the costs and qualities of the project awarded by the City Council through a minor contract to the company Vielca Ingenieros. However, as various architects and engineers who have requested the stoppage of the work from the Últimes Vesprades to Mestalla platform have been denouncing, the execution project presented on which the audit is carried out has shortcomings and deficiencies. For example, it does not specify the location of the concrete structure built or the cost of its adaptation.
Regarding the schedule of the works, if there are no setbacks, preliminary adaptation work on the exterior will be carried out until May, while the start of the architectural works already inside the stadium is scheduled for May 21, the assembly of the roof by December 29, 2026, its conclusion in April 2027 and the completion of all works by July 11, 2027.
The president of Valencia CF, Layhoon Chan, has assured that the new stadium “represents the future” of the entity. “The Nou Mestalla is more than a stadium; “It is a beacon of hope and ambition, vital to realizing our medium and long-term aspirations, both on and off the field.”
For his part, the Councilor for Urban Planning, Juan Giner, has defended the legality of the works license and all the municipal administrative procedures that have included “all the technical reports that guarantee their complete legal viability.” Giner has insisted that the members of the municipal executive will be “vigilant to ensure compliance with the severe requirements imposed by the City Council” in order for “the club to comply with the city.”
Regarding the Benicalap sports center, he recalled that “Valencia CF will under no circumstances be able to obtain a tertiary license, for tertiary activity in the new Mestalla, if it has not deposited the amount for the sports center in the municipal coffers.” “Once the amount for the sports center has been approved, the City Council will begin drafting the project and the works to comply with the Benicalap neighborhood,” the mayor assured.
Project characteristics: photovoltaic cover for 100% of the stands
According to the press release sent by Valencia CF, “the new Valencian home will be a symbol of pride and modernity for the club and the city, with an offer of sports, leisure and entertainment 365 days a year” thanks to a stadium that It will be “a symbol of pride and modernity for the club and the city.”
To make this stadium a reality, “Valencia CF has the vision of Fenwick Iribarren Architects, a firm that designed three of the stadiums for the last FIFA World Cup (Qatar 2022), and with the support and experience of FCC Construction, a construction company. recognized prestige in the construction of large sports facilities such as the Metropolitan Stadium, the RCDE Stadium, or the renovation of the Santiago Bernabéu, in addition to the sports cities of FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.”
The Nou Mestalla is the “most relevant non-sporting” project in more than a century of Valencia CF history: “With capacity for 70,044 spectators, it will be a state-of-the-art stadium with the capacity to host top-flight matches from both FIFA and UEFA, as well as major events, adapted to the most recent trends in terms of visibility, safety and comfort and will provide an improvement at all levels for the fan.”
In addition, it will have “an important entertainment proposal 365 days a year (experiential restaurants, leisure, megastore, museum, auditorium…), thus becoming a transcendental, vibrant and innovative enclave for our fans, who will be able to live an experience complete and exciting on match and non-match days.” It will be a “dynamic space where you can enjoy with the family, prepared for the celebration of large events and which, thanks to this experiential nature and the more than 6,500 hospitality locations, will be a unique opportunity for visitors and gastronomic, technological and commercial partners.”
Compositionally, it is “a project of dynamic and wavy ribbons that chase and twist around each other to form the facades, stair towers and the podium that supports the building. One of the great values of the new stadium will be the translucent cover that will filter the Mediterranean light, protecting 100% of the seats from sun and rain, expanding the acoustic effect from the stands to the field and on which a photovoltaic installation will be implemented.
Its design has been carried out by a firm of great international prestige such as Schlaich Bergermann & Partner, authors of the roofs of stadiums such as the Metropolitano, Maracaná, National Stadium in Warsaw, Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium and the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg, these two Lastly, venues for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The color orange will predominate in the stands and, as in the current Camp de Mestalla, “the bat, a symbol that has accompanied all our successes throughout history,” will take center stage.
The project follows the latest environmental sustainability criteria in the choice of materials and low consumption criteria in the facilities with water and energy saving systems. In this sense, the choice of the structural type of the roof where the latest technology is implemented will drastically reduce the carbon footprint of the building due to its low consumption of steel, also producing clean, ecological and unlimited electricity for the daily use of the building.
Criticisms of Compromís and PSPV to Catalá
The spokesperson for the PSPV-PSOE in the Valencia City Council, Borja Sanjuán, assured this Friday, the day in which the works on the Nou Mestalla have restarted, that the mayor of the city, María José Catalá (PP), “has to be a guarantee” that the largest shareholder of Valencia CF, Peter Lim, “meets the obligations he has with the city” derived from the construction of the new soccer field.
The representative of the PSPV-PSOE has asserted that “Catalá has a responsibility” in the face of all this and has indicated that she cannot remain “a spectator.” “She has to be the guarantee that Peter Lim fulfills his obligations to the city,” the councilor stated.
The spokesperson for Compromís per València Papi Robles stated that “today some works begin that I have serious doubts will end up being completed. We already know the history of València CF and, above all, of Mr. Lim, who is a very clear non-compliant towards the city. Right now, we have a Valencia CF kidnapped by Peter Lim that begins work without an agreement with the city, that is, Mrs. Catalá has given him a blank check, without defending the rights of the city. Valencia granted some benefits to Peter Lim in exchange for conditions that today are not even established. Mr. Lim, right now, has a free hand to do and undo, while the PP mayor is acting as if this was not her thing.”
Robles assures that “the project is of doubtful viability, as different expert voices have said: it is not clear that the structure is in condition, at a technical level it is not clear that it is well dimensioned and what is worse is that at an economic level in no way moment it has been shown that the cost he says it will have is what it will really have. And this leads us to a more than probable ruin for Valencia CF. Therefore, once again Ms. Catalá is allowing Mr. Lim to make direct speculation on behalf of Valencia CF by looking the other way.”
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