Construction of the new East Stand begins on Monday
It is estimated that the new stand will be finished and operative in January
Next Monday, 9th May, will see construction work begin for the new East Stand at Ipurua, with the works expected to be completed and the stand operative during January 2017.
Today, in the press room at Ipurua, the President of SD Eibar, Alex Aranzábal, and the Club’s manager of Works and Facilities, Gorka Unamuno, provided details about the works and on the future stand, which will replace the one built in the season 1970-1971.
This stand, also known as “la de Eskozia la Brava” (Scotland the Brave) after the supporter’s club that is based in it (the oldest and most active of all Eibar’s fan clubs), will have seating for 2,000 spectators (it currently holds 1,022). The whole stadium will then have a capacity of 7,100.
This work is a continuation of that carried out to the North Stand during 2015, which resulted in an increase in capacity by 1,230 seats, in addition to providing an area for businesses, new toilet facilities and the first two classrooms of the centre for Training and Innovation in Sport.
The Club is finalising the process of relocating the 937 season ticket holders from this stand to other seats in Ipurua. The details of this process will be made known next week.
Alex Aranzábal explained that “the ambitious objective is that Ipurua becomes a place to visit, with a museum and a visitor centre”.
He also emphasised that one of the innovations of the works will be the construction of an underground parking on a single floor with capacity for 60 places, which will reduce congestion on match and training days.
The project also includes construction of the Visitor Centre and Club Museum, the official shop, new toilet facilities and the possibility of pedestrianising the street on match days, forming a large public area for the benefit of the fans before and after the game.
The cost of the planned investment is 3.2 million euros before taxes. In this regard, Aranzábal hoped that the project can count on public funding.
“It would be fair that there was support from the institutions, as there has been with the grounds of other Basque clubs in the First Division. Conversations have been taking place for more than two years. There isn’t a “no” and there is goodwill on the part of the institutions and the parties. It is intolerable that we are still being told no. You cannot defend giving support to the grounds of Athletic and Real Sociedad and not to Eibar when it is in its third season in the First Division”, he said.
The President of Eibar revealed that two meetings had been held with residents of the neighbourhood and one with the supporters’ clubs and there had been contact with the political parties in Eibar to explain the project and listen to their contributions.
As a result of these meetings, corrective measures have been adopted, such as the construction of the subterranean parking (which was not contemplated in the initial project), the reduction in the height of the cantilever, with two fewer rows of seats and the elimination of a gangway to avoid having a stairway behind the goal.
As a consequence of this pooling of interests with different groups in Eibar, the municipal plenary session unanimously approved the modification of the Partial Plan for the works of the East Stand and there are no resident’s protests.
PHASES OF THE WORKS
Phase I: Construction of the parking basement under the pitch. Ends: Second week in August.
Phase II: Conditioning of half of the stand. Late October
Phase III: Conditioning of the full stand. January 2017
Phase IV: Commissioning and finishing. March 2017
Phase V: Ground floor premises (Museum, shop, etc.) End of Season.