Mr. Enrique Cerezo: “It’s an historic day for Atlético de Madrid”
The deal has become reality. Atlético de Madrid will move to the Peineta in a few years and Mr. Enrique Cerezo couldn’t hide his happiness after having signed the agreement with the Madrid City Council for the construction and management of the Madrid Olympic Stadium. “It’s an historic day for Atlético de Madrid to be able to change stadiums and do so in the conditions in which we’ve done it; it’s a very important day for the history of this Club for its present and its future. We all want to improve and Atlético has made a big improvement,” stated the President of the organization.
Cerezo reviewed the steps that have been carried out for the signing of the deal. “It took time and the process has been slow. In a few years, we made a protocol, an agreement with which all of us who have taken part are really in agreement with and we’re happy. We worked with excitement to achieve something that’s very important not only for Madrid but for our Club, which has a need for change, for athletic, economic and social improvement,” assured Mr. Enrique Cerezo.
When it came time to discuss the time frame set by the organization for the move to the new stadium, Enrique calculated that “we’ll be able to move in three seasons.”
Mr. Enrique Cerezo also revealed one of the previously unknown factors, in the event that Madrid is selected as host of the 2016 Olympic Games, which is where Atlético de Madrid would play. “At the moment, we have quite a few options, amongst which is to make the mini-stadium that we have in the Ciudad Deportiva in Alcorcón bigger. It’s going to be a short time period and I think that it would just be a few matches,” he pointed out.
WIth respect to the cost of the new Atlético de Madrid stadium, Mr. Cerezo said that “the new stadium will be paid with the revenue that comes from the Vicente Calderón. Given the economic circumstances in Spain right now, and practically thinking that we’re making a stadium change, that is, stadium for stadium, what we’re given for the Calderón is what the new Madrid Olympic Stadium costs,” he assured.
From the Atlético organization, they still haven’t thought about what to do as a farewell to the Vicente Calderón, though Cerezo believes that “there are three years left at a minimum. We’ll start thinking about what to do because, nostalgically, it’s a complicated subject, but we have to look towards the future with happiness and faith, with a good view and I think that this is in the new Madrid Olympic Stadium, which is going to be property of Atlético de Madrid. It’s a very good operation, not only for the city of Madrid but for the organization.”
“Leaving the Vicente Calderón makes us all sad, but we have to overcome it to go to a better world and see better things because we can’t remain immobile. We’ve had two or three stadium changes in our 105 years of history. I believe, and I’ll say it now, that 50 or 60 years in the future this will not be the last stadium of Atlético de Madrid,” Mr. Enrique Cerezo concluded.
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