More than three years have passed since the Calderón closed its doors forever. He Legends Party The curtain was finally lowered on May 28, 2017, with all those who wrote his story at different times, the last to step on his lawn. Months before the cranes entered, the subscribers who asked for it had as a gift the armchair that they occupied the last season of the stadium. Later, the club held a charity auction so that hundreds of items would forever have a place in an athletic home. And thanks to the AS, in addition, thousands of athletes also keep a piece of their playing field. It was Carlos Peña, the legendary field delegate, who had to close the stadium door just before the demolition began … which ends this week.
The last standing walls fell on Friday, in three days, no trace will be left of an emblem of the city, which, however, will not fall into oblivion thanks to the Madrid City Council that, hand in hand with Atlético himself, he is working on a project that will make future athletic generations not forget. In the Calderón many of the best pages of the red and white history were written and the club works so that all Madrid residents and visitors to the capital can remember their mythical coliseum. For it, Atlético has proposed that the future park to be built in the place where so many glorious afternoons were lived breathe rojiblanco on all four sides, starting, of course, by its name: Vicente Calderón Stadium Park. In addition, the idea in which it works includes the placement of a series of memories to remember the presence for more than five decades of the historic athletic stadium.
The park will occupy the area where the athletic arena was built, located in Madrid Río, the new green lung of the city, and through which thousands of locals and tourists will carry out sports and leisure activities. Remembering how the red and white history deserves has been, for some years now, an inalienable objective for the club's leaders. This has been verified in the transfer to the Wanda Metropolitano, with innumerable winks to the past. For this reason, the athletic managers also want this area to serve to honor the memory of the club and, therefore, they have proposed different tributes that are still being shaped, since it will be the City Council that decides its final execution. One of them will be a plaque commemorating Luis' first goal scored at the stadium. This would be placed in the exact place where the goal at the south end was located, in which Aragonés did that much forever at the inauguration of the field on October 2, 1966, against Valencia (1-1).
Wherever the opposing goal was, the one in the north end will also have its historical claim. In it Correa marked the last official goal of Atlético there, on May 21, 2017, against Athletic. A plaque would collect it too. The club, in addition, has raised the possibility of recreating the stadium in a sculpture that will serve so that the Calderón will be remembered by all the fans who walk through the park. The representation of the Manzanares coliseum would have a prominent place in the new environment, just where the central circle of the field was located. Work is also being done on honoring to the mythical corner of Pantic where Margarita placed her bouquet of flowers for so many years.
A little piece of the Calderón will travel to San Blas
Atlético have another nod to the history prepared that will surely excite their fans, since a piece of the Vicente Calderón Stadium will be transferred to the new home of the rojiblanco club in the San Blas-Canillejas neighborhood. These are the classic huge letters with the name of ‘Club Atlético de Madrid’ that leaned out over the Manzanares for almost half a century, since they were placed at the top of the Calderón façade a few years after the inauguration of the stadium, once the construction works for the preferred grandstand were completed. The final location is not yet decided, but what is certain is that these letters, which were withdrawn months ago and they are being restored, they will form part of the environment of the Metropolitan Wanda.
Madrid Río, a green lung with more than 230,000 m2
With this new park the Madrid City Council will complete the Madrid Río project, with the coverage of the last section of the M-30 in this area of the city. The ring road will not be buried as planned, but will be covered with a novel system inspired by a New York elevated park, High Line. Madrid Río, has become one of the largest plant lungs in the capital with more than 230,000m2 and has transformed the South of the city. With this last step, the City Council creates a new area, called Mahou-Calderón, since it includes the land that was once occupied by the brewery factory, and which offers the possibility of living in the city center, one step away from the Historic Madrid, in a place surrounded by nature and green areas. And with added value for any rojiblanco fan: a terrace overlooking the… Parque del Calderón.