Re: The scale (and low cost) of Portugal’s achievement

Braga is centrepiece of Euro 2004 project
Thu 8 January, 2004 02:52

By Kevin Fylan

LISBON (Reuters) – A four-year stadium building programme costing more than 600 million euros (416.2 million pounds) culminated in the unveiling of a work of art in the Portuguese city of Braga at the end of December, giving Euro 2004 organisers the festive gift they wanted.

The Braga Municipal Stadium is hardly a name to stir the heart but the ground itself, built with a million cubic metres of rock blasted out from an old quarry in the hills above the city, will provide the tournament’s most spectacular setting.

Designed by Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura, it features just two stands instead of the usual four, is screwed into a hillside with steel cables and boasts a huge video screen at one of the unused ends.

Portugal won the rights to the tournament in 1999 when a promise of seven new and three rebuilt stadiums helped the country to see off a strong bid from neighbour Spain and a joint proposal from Austria and Hungary.

The final two grounds to be completed, the new Braga stadium and the rebuilt Bessa of Boavista, were inaugurated on December 31. With a little over five months to go before the start of the tournament, organisers believe their pledge has been fulfilled.

PROMISES MET

“All the promises made in 1999 have been met,” Portuguese Soccer Federation chief and organising committee chairman Gilberto Madail told reporters on a tour of the stadiums last month.

“You can see, here and now, that the stadiums are built, they are a reality, and the access is in place. When people return for the tournament, all the infrastructure will be completed.”

The Braga stadium was the most ambitious of the 10 projects begun in 2000.

Benfica’s new Stadium of Light in Lisbon can hold 65,000 spectators and should provide a fitting setting for games such as France v England in the opening group phase, as well as the final on July 4.

The far smaller Algarve stadium, pitched between the resort towns of Faro and Loule on the south coast, is another appealing design. Boavista’s compact Bessa, in Oporto, will give fans a close look at the action by pressing them up against the pitch.

Across town from Bessa, FC Porto’s bright and airy new stadium is perhaps the most attractive of the lot, designed and built at a total cost of 125 million euros.

COLOUR SCHEMES

Vibrant colour schemes at toybox stadiums built by Tomas Taveira in the towns of Leiria and Aveiro could annoy some spectators and possibly prove a distraction for the players.

With the stadiums finished, attention will turn to finishing access roads, car parks and television compounds, as well as other infrastructure such as the new railway station at Faro-Loule.

Benfica’s stadium, Porto’s Dragao, the Alvalade of Sporting Lisbon — also designed by Taveira — and Boavista’s Bessa should earn their keep after the tournament as home grounds.

However, many of the others will be largely empty in a country where most first division teams draw just a few thousand fans.

The three Taveira stadiums have been given multi-coloured seats, with the intention of making them look full even when they are virtually empty.

For the moment, the fact that the stadiums exist at all gives the Portuguese something to be proud of, says Madail.

“There were doubts expressed about whether we could do what we promised to do and, painfully, a lot of those doubts came from within Portugal,” Madail said.

“What we’ve done is to show that a small country is capable of achieving something spectacular.”