Real Zaragoza - La Romareda

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Estadio La Romareda serves as the home stadium for Real Zaragoza in Zaragoza. On February 9, 1956, the city council approved plans to build the stadium. Agroman construction company took on the task and completed it in just 15 months with a team of 350 workers. The construction of La Romareda was made possible by the efforts of Mayor Luis Gómez Laguna and his successor Cesáreo Alierta, who was also the president of Real Zaragoza. The previous stadium, Estadio Torrero, had a capacity of only 20,000, which was deemed too small. La Romareda officially opened on September 8, 1957, with a match between Real Zaragoza and CA Osasuna (4-3). The official seating capacity is 34,596, with an average attendance of around 20,000 for Real Zaragoza games. La Romareda boasts the unique distinction of having Europe's deepest goal nets, which stretch back four meters. These nets also feature a striking blue and white diagonal stripe design. Over time, the stadium has undergone several upgrades, including renovations in 1977 and 1982, when it was used as a venue for FIFA World Cup group matches and a quarterfinal during the Summer Olympics. In 1994, La Romareda became an all-seater stadium. La Romareda was initially proposed as the Olympic Stadium for Jaca's bid to host the Winter Olympics in 2014. However, the bid ultimately failed. Plans to expand La Romareda into a 43,000-seat stadium were set to begin on April 17, 2006, but were put on hold due to a lawsuit filed by the political party PAR. The lawsuit claimed that the expansion would harm the local population and a judge ordered the suspension of work. As a result, plans for a new stadium in Zaragoza have been scrapped.