Atlético de Madrid Park: a tribute to Vicente Calderón
The Atlético de Madrid Park is now a reality. The area that once housed the Vicente Calderón stadium was inaugurated this Monday, December 9, with a number of nods to the colchonero coliseum.
The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, inaugurated the M-30 coverage in the Mahou-Calderón area, where the old Atlético de Madrid stadium was located. The event was attended by Enrique Cerezo, the colchonero president; the CEO, Miguel Ángel Gil; and several club legends.
These representatives were in charge of placing in an urn several symbolic objects from the history of Atlético, such as a seat, a stone, a piece of grass, posters from the first and last games played at the stadium, a black and white photo of the first goal scored at the Vicente Calderón, a 50th anniversary shirt of our old home, and an Atlético de Madrid flag.
All of them will rest under a slab that has a drawing of the Vicente Calderón engraved, very close to a vintage ball carved in stone, on the ground, where the old center of the colchonero coliseum was.
Also noteworthy is the presence of a representation of colchonero legends formed by Manolo Sánchez Delgado, Juan Carlos Pedraza, Miguel Ángel Ruiz García, Francisco Javier Bermejo, Luís Pereira and Ramón ‘Cacho’ Heredia.
The old Vicente Calderón is now a huge park that can be enjoyed. The entire exterior surface resulting from the new M-30 tunnel has been landscaped with 1,200 new trees, with 4,500 square meters of grass and 9,000 shrubs of different species. A viewpoint towards the Manzanares river has also been built.
