Western media: Vallecano’s home and away team stands will be divided by fences, and tickets will not be sold for 7 to 8 months

According to the Spanish media ondacero, since the Vallecano home and away team stands will be divided by fences, tickets for this stand will not be sold for 7 to 8 months.

In recent years, the future of the Vallecas Stadium has been the focus of Vallecano Club. This home stadium, which opened on June 6, 1976, has experienced 49 years of ups and downs, but until this summer, the stadium had not changed much.

This summer, the Madrid Autonomous Community, as the owner of the stadium, launched the first phase of renovation projects, including replacing two roofs, repairing multiple exterior walls, and changing the flower bed in front of the ticket office into a large staircase and barrier-free platform. Improvements have also been made to the interior facilities, such as bathroom renovations and the installation of new air conditioning and ventilation systems. The total cost of this phase is €2 million and was completed at the end of August.

While fans are hopeful about these improvements, there has been some negative feedback. For example, some restrooms located behind the ballpark were not renovated. At the same time, the club must also carry out major renovations to the locker room in accordance with La Liga regulations, including adding a physiotherapy room, new toilets and separate toilets for male and female referees. These works are directly responsible for the Rayo Vallecano club.

The Madrid Autonomous Region Culture and Sports Committee and its head Mariano DePaco expressed their hope that Rayo Vallecano can continue to stay at the Vallecas Stadium for a long time. The club pays the autonomous region an annual usage fee of 81,000 euros, and under the agreement renewed in 2019, the ground can be used until 2039 and extended to 2049. Rayo Vallecano stated that the total expenditure, including taxes and fees, is approximately 400,000 euros per year.

Since Mariano De Paco took over, he has been committed to helping Rayo Vallecano stay in the current stadium. A few months ago, at a meeting at La Liga headquarters, it was agreed that the Madrid Autonomous Community would try to allow Rayo Vallecano to continue to use the existing stadium unless the club planned otherwise.

At a press conference, DePaco revealed that the autonomous region plans to expand the stadium capacity next. Although the exact number of additional seats is unclear, the project is feasible. It is currently in its preliminary stages and the next step will be to determine how it will be implemented. The Madrid Autonomous Region emphasized that the cleaning of the stadium is the responsibility of Rayo Vallecano, but they are willing to provide assistance.

Regarding the issue of the visiting team’s stand, according to Onda Cero Radio, La Liga required Rayo Vallecano to install a fence in the visiting team’s stand to divide the area. Previously, Rayo Vallecano managed this area through security personnel, but La Liga changed this policy.

This notice was issued a few days before the game against Barcelona, ​​and Vallecano claimed that there was not enough time to make adjustments. As a result, there were no visiting fans in attendance during games against Barcelona, ​​Celta Vigo and Sevilla. Surprisingly, from the end of August until now, Rayo Vallecano has still not installed a fence to solve the problem and allow visiting fans to enter.

According to Onda Cero, after receiving La Liga's request, Rayo Vallecano contacted the Madrid Autonomous Region and pointed out that the latter should be responsible for installing the fence. The autonomous region has already started working on the matter, but since it is also necessary to build a restroom for the visiting team area only, this is a larger project, so it needs to go through a tender process and comply with the deadlines set by the law. The entire process is expected to take about six months.

This means that the Madrid Autonomous Region will be responsible for the construction and installation, but for the next seven to eight months, Rayo Vallecano will not be able to sell tickets in the away team stands. This also means that for the remainder of the season, there will be no visiting fans attending games.