Valencia assumes the reins after the ATE expires and will make a new agreement to build the stadium

While the Valencian Government yesterday announced the expiration of the Valencia CF ATE, the Valencia City Council met with the club's managers to inform them of the new rules of the game: the council will establish a new agreement with Valencia CF to finish the stadium with the same requirements contained in the plan.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
30 July 2022 Saturday 01:55
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Valencia assumes the reins after the ATE expires and will make a new agreement to build the stadium

While the Valencian Government yesterday announced the expiration of the Valencia CF ATE, the Valencia City Council met with the club's managers to inform them of the new rules of the game: the council will establish a new agreement with Valencia CF to finish the stadium with the same requirements contained in the plan.

Conditions that require a stadium with a capacity for 70,000 people, a "quality" sports center for the Benicalap neighborhood and meeting all the requirements to be able to host the semifinal of the 2030 Soccer World Cup. As reiterated by the Consell spokesperson, Aitana Mas -when he explained the decision of the Valencian Government to unblock "the urban mess" and leave the City Council "hands free" to find a solution-, the urban benefits of the ATE are maintained, but the consistory asks the entity for "an effort".

This was conveyed by the Mayor of Valencia, Joan Ribó, the Vice Mayor and Councilor for Urban Development, Sandra Gómez, and the Councilor for Public Space, Lucía Beamud, to the representative of the largest shareholder of Valencia CF, Lay Hoon, at a meeting held yesterday to deal with the situation of the New Mestalla.

Ribó reported that from now on the City Council will prepare a draft of the new legal framework that will govern the relationship between the local administration and the sports club and the relevant meetings will be convened to study the text.

In this sense, the municipal head expressed "the will that this field be finished once and for all, especially with the prospect of the 2030 World Cup." However, the mayor insisted that "we are not going to lower the demands of the ATE." The stadium, he pointed out, must have a capacity for 70,000 attendees; the Benicalap sports center has to be “from the year 2022 with the prices of 2022”, and the agreement must contemplate the installation of photovoltaic panels to alleviate energy poverty. “València CF has to understand that it must meet these conditions once and for all”, reiterated the mayor.

Along the same lines, Sandra Gómez underlined "the urban rights of the ATE must have co-responsibility or bidirectionality", which must be manifested in the construction of a "state-of-the-art" stadium, capable of hosting the semifinal of the 2030 Soccer World Cup, as well as a sports center “in good conditions, not a low cost sports center, as the residents of Benicalap deserve, who have been waiting for it for more than a decade”.