Valencia Stadium Hits New Snag

It now appears a new soccer stadium in Spain will take more than five years to complete as the project is once again in danger of running out of money.

Spanish bank Bankia reportedly pulled out of a deal supposed to clear the way for the Mestalla Stadium’s completion, although Valencia soccer club president Manuel Llorente says he’s still working with Bankia on a “financial solution with the goal of finishing the new stadium.”

 
Construction on the stadium began in 2007 but first hit problems in 2009 as the soccer club fell behind with payments to the construction companies.
 
“The club’s intention is that once the work has restarted it will not stop again until the first team can play in the new stadium,” the club said after the construction workers agreed to go back to work.
 
Last year the build hit more financial trouble, forcing Llorente to go to Bancaja, which has since merged with Bankia, for a loan of euro 140 million ($180 million).
 
The outstanding matter of the club’s then euro 260 million debt was partly sorted by the club giving the bank the neighbouring land, where the current stadium stands, the land where the new stadium is being built, and the hotel that’s part of the stadium complex.
 
Even with that deal done, the soccer club still had debts of about euro 240 million. 
 
Llorente was still excited about the deal and said Valencia CF will have one of the “best stadiums in Europe,” although he was under pressure to do something as the existing stadium – which was built in 1923 – is running up annual maintenance costs of more than euro 2 million.
 
The new problem is that Bankia has been walloped by the collapse of the Spanish property market and – like all Spanish banks – is desperate to find some cash.