Azteca, unearthed: Google tool digs into the legendary stadium’s 65-year history

Google and the humanities archive ICA Foundation person launched an interactive task done the Google Earth level that invites users to digitally research Mexico’s legendary Estadio Azteca (now Banorte) from the 1960s to today. 

The virtual circuit allows you to research the stands and different parts of the iconic stadium, besides known arsenic Mexico City Stadium for the duration of the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup. 

Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca, precocious rebranded arsenic Estadio Banorte, is 1 of the astir celebrated stadiums successful the world. (Instagram) 

It besides includes accusation astir the stadium’s construction, archetypal engineering challenges and its quality passim renovation works successful the lead-up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, wherever it became the archetypal stadium successful the satellite to big matches successful 3 World Cup tournaments: 1970, 1986 and 2026.

“Mexico didn’t privation to conscionable enactment connected a World Cup — we wanted to enactment connected the champion World Cup the satellite had ever seen,” Guillermo Canedo said upon his 1960 assignment arsenic Mexican Football Federation president. “And for that we needed the champion stadium the satellite had ever seen.”

Canedo broke crushed successful 1961 connected the iconic 100,000-plus-seat stadium, budgeted astatine 95 cardinal pesos (approximately US $7.6 cardinal successful 1961, oregon astir $86 cardinal successful today’s economy). That fig yet snowballed to implicit 200 cardinal pesos owed to a scope of unforeseen challenges.

Due to the beingness of highly hard volcanic stone astatine the enactment site, the architect, Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, had to stitchery a radical of 10 architects, 17 technicians, 35 engineers and 800 laborers to found a aboveground connected which the stadium could beryllium built.  

The squad had to region 180 cardinal kg of stone from 64,000 quadrate meters of land, which took astir 1 twelvemonth and required a batch of dynamite.  

Much of this is documented connected the caller Google level alongside respective defining moments successful satellite sport’s history, including:

• The “Game of the Century:” the legendary 1970 World Cup semifinal betwixt Italy and West Germany.
• The celebrated lucifer betwixt Mexico and Denmark astatine the unofficial 1971 Women’s World Cup, which attracted a grounds 110,000 spectators. 
• Argentine subordinate Diego Maradona’s iconic “Hand of God” extremity successful the 1986 World Cup last against England.

“There’s conscionable thing precise peculiar astir the Azteca,” Brazilian shot fable Edson Arantes bash Nascimento, amended known arsenic Pele, erstwhile said. “You request to beryllium wrong it, to consciousness it to understand. It’s unique.” 

And present you tin bash conscionable that, albeit connected a virtual level. 

With reports from López Dóriga Digital and EL PAÍS English