An expansion and renovation of a 25-year-old stadium created Wanda Metropolitano Stadium, home of the Spanish professional soccer team Atlético Madrid. The project team says structural concrete elements not only bear the weight of the stands, but they also seamlessly blend the facility’s expanded areas with the original stadium.

Widened interior spaces provide mobility for the nearly 70,000 fans coursing throughout the complex on match days, the project team says.

Consisting of a 6,336-ton steel structure tensioned with radial cables and joined with a nearly 894,000-sq-ft translucent polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane, the stadium’s roof protects nearly every seat in the stadium from rain. The placement of the roof’s radial membrane 131 ft above the ground involved unwinding, tensioning and installing the panels to the radial rings and inner ring that supports the roof’s panels. Consisting of 720 panels, the PTFE membrane sections weigh a total of 92 tons.

The facility also includes 4,000 parking spaces, with more than 1,000 of those spaces located inside the stadium. The project team says improved roads and transit connections have also helped connect the city’s previously isolated Vicalvaro district with the rest of the city.

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