Mario Alberto Kempes Stadium

The Estadio Mario Alberto Kempes, formerly known as Estadio Cordoba and popularly Estadio Chateau Carreras, is a stadium in the Chateau Carreras neighborhood of Cordoba, Argentina. It is used mostly for association football matches and also sometimes for athletics.

The stadium was built in 1976 in preparation for the 1978 FIFA World Cup, with a capacity for 47,851 spectators although it doesn't provide seating for all of them, like many Argentine stadiums.

Most football teams in Cordoba have their own stadiums but they usually prefer playing in this stadium for its size and comfort, especially when playing important games that attract big crowds. Generally, this stadium is used for Talleres' matches, and is used for Belgrano's, Instituto's and Racing's matches. The Argentina national football team home matches have also been played here.

The stadium, in 2006 and 2007, hosted some Special Stages of motorsport event named Rally Argentina, a round of the World Rally Championship.

During 2010 and 2011 the stadium went through a remodelling process. The field was sunken 4 meters, the iconic Autotrol scoreboards installed for the 1978 World Cup were replaced with modern video screens, new bleachers were built in order to improve the poor view caused by the shallow shape of the stadium and the capacity was increased to 57,000, becoming the third largest stadium in Argentina by seating capacity. It was re-opened on June 26, 2011, just 5 days before the start of the 2011 Copa America. The stands were fully covered after the cup.

In October, 2010 the name was changed to honor Mario Kempes, former Argentina national team player and top goal scorer of the 1978 FIFA World Cup, who was also a native of Cordoba.

This page also has a version in other languages :  Марио Альберто Кемпес Стадион (russian)