“An unprecedented bet,” declared Mayor Natalia Chueca (PP) during the last municipal campaign about her flagship project, the Smart Sports City. And the unprecedented will continue at the end of his current mandate, since the funds reserved for this initiative will be allocated largely to the additional public costs of the new Romareda. This was declared last Friday by the councilor herself, who considers that the “priority” is the football stadium, compared to a place which would host sports such as athletics, swimming, basketball. -ball or gymnastics.
“This is one of my strategic projects for Zaragoza,” declared the PP candidate for mayor on his website on May 4, 2023. The objective, he stressed, was “to attract major sporting events” but, at the same time, to transform the site “into a Specialized Sports Technical Center in which the Aragonese Sports Federations will be able to improve their technical programs”. It is located in the north parking lot of the Expo, on the land where the temporary pitch that will house Real Zaragoza from next season will be built and while La Romareda is under construction.
The project has always aroused the reluctance of Vox – whose votes are necessary for the PP to obtain majorities – which considers that the Sports City would compete in “resource acquisition” with the construction of the new Romareda. At the same time, the mayor ended up agreeing with the far-right group, for whom the Smart Sports City was an “idea” of the then mayor of Podemos, Fernando Rivarés, which the councilor “surprisingly” appreciated .
The initiative is not ruled out, but the dynamics of this mandate “will be complicated,” Chueca said during his appearance. “This project is not dying, but due to its execution capacity, Romareda has been given priority. It’s postponed,” he added.
In fact, the initiative sees municipal contributions reduced to a minimum during this four-year period. And, if it is finally realized, it should be a much less ambitious project – at least on a budgetary level – in accordance with the multi-year reorganization envisaged by the PP government team.
Initially, 52.2 million euros were going to be allocated to the Smart Sports City over seven years. This year, 200,000 euros were reserved, to which 2,000,000 will be added the following year, while between 2026 and 2030 it had planned to spend 10 million euros each year.
Faced with this, with the variation derived from the additional cost in La Romareda, the investment allocated to the project would fall to 10.4 million: this year the contribution of 200,000 euros is maintained; in 2025, it will be reduced to an additional 200,000 euros; In 2026 and 2027, 2,000,000 euros are envisaged each year, and by 2028 the contribution would reach 6,000,000 euros.
However, the mayor explained last Friday that the portable stadium, with a capacity of 20,000 seats, located on the grounds of what was to be the Smart City, will be integrated into the future complex, located very close to the football field. grounds, the Aragonese Football Federation and the Aragonese Sports Center. But, even adding the 15.3 million euros that the modular area will involve, the total investment remains far from what was announced.
An aquatic center, an athletics center and a gym
The Smart Sports City initially planned by the PP would have a mini football stadium, that is to say an intermediate-sized field with a capacity of 4,500 spectators, expandable to 8,000. The creation of a center water sports facility has also been proposed, which will include an indoor Olympic swimming pool, another for swimming and water polo, as well as one for high jumping and another outdoor pool for other uses. Its capacity would be nearly 2,000 people.
The Sports City athletics center would have a 200-meter indoor track with six lanes for official competitions and a capacity of 2,500 spectators. This facility would be connected to the existing Aragonese Sports Center – “Corona de Aragón” Athletics Stadium.
Likewise, a multi-sport pavilion with a central field has been planned for international basketball, indoor football-handball and volleyball competitions, with a capacity of 7,000 spectators; also several multi-sport halls for artistic and rhythmic gymnastics, skating, weightlifting, fencing, judo, karate, taekwondo, boxing and kickboxing, sports dance, badminton and table tennis and a Olympic climbing wall.
In the case of outdoor courts, they will be used for sports such as basketball, indoor football-handball, volleyball, beach volleyball, badminton, paddle tennis and pétanque. To these will be added two outdoor sites for archery and Olympic shooting.
