Estadio Olímpico Universitario - UNAM Stadium Guide

Estadio Universitario first opened in 1952 with a capacity of 68,954 which at the time made it the largest stadium in Mexico ahead of Estadio Azteca. During the first two decades of its existence, the stadium was generally used to hold American Football matches between Mexico’s largest public Universities, and in 1968 it hosted events of the 1968 Summer Olympics.

Although it hosted a handful of soccer matches of the local universities, and even during the Olympic games itself, it wasn’t until the 1986 World Cup that the stadium really came to be associated with football across the world. Expanded to over 83,700 at its peak, it was scaled down to 72,000 for the World Cup.

Despite being the second largest stadium of the tournament ahead of Estadio Jalisco, it only hosted three matches of group A which featuring Argentina, South Korea and Bulgaria, plus one round of sixteen between Italy and France.

Located in Mexico City along with the larger Estadio Azteca which was used for the final, The Olympic stadium would have perhaps hosted more matches if it was not for the geography, and the fact that it had suffered a stadium disaster in the previous year.

In a fiercely contested match between the two home sides Pumas and Club Universidad, 11 fans were killed during a crush in access gate number 29. Many more were injured, and it was later found that the authorities had allowed more spectators into the stadium than permitted by safety regulations in what can only be described as a tragedy.

View of Estadio Olímpico Universitario

Estadio Olímpico Universitario is comprised of four stands: North, East, South and West.

Click the thumbnails above to enlarge an image of each stand and to read a more detailed description of each part of the Stadium.