The Estadio Azul, is a 35,000-seat stadium located in Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

. This sports facility is currently used for association football matches and previously (until 1990) for American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

. It is the home of Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 football club Cruz Azul

Club Deportivo Cruz Azul

Club Deportivo, Social, y Cultural Cruz Azul, known simply as Cruz Azul, is a Mexican professional Association football club based in Mexico City, Mexico; after which initially was based in Ciudad Cooperativa Cruz Azul in the Mexican state of Hidalgo...

; it has been also home for Atlante F.C.

Atlante F.C.

Club de Fútbol Atlante, is a Mexican professional football club, currently playing in the Mexican First Division League. The club is based in Cancún, Mexico as of the start of the 2007-08 season, when they relocated from Mexico City, and plays its home games in Estadio Andrés Quintana Roo.-Domestic...

 (hence the nickname Estadio Azulgrana) and several home matches of the Mexico national football team

Mexico national football team

The Mexican national football team represents Mexico in association football and is governed by the Mexican Football Federation , the governing body for football in Mexico. Mexico's home stadium is the Estadio Azteca and their head coach is José Manuel de la Torre...

, especially in the early 1990s.

Both times when Mexico hosted the World Cup

FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...

, Estadio Azul did not host any games mainly due to the age of the structure, the bad parking facilities and the complex traffic patterns.

A peculiarity of this stadium is that it is built as a pit; the playing field is below street level. Another oddity is that just beside the stadium is the Plaza México

Plaza México

The Plaza México, situated in Mexico City, is the world's largest bullring. This 48,000-seat facility is usually dedicated to bullfighting, but many boxing fights have been held there as well, including Julio César Chávez's third bout with Frankie Randall...

, the world's largest bullring

Bullring

A bullring is an arena where bullfighting is performed. Bullrings are often associated with Spain, but they can also be found in neighboring countries and the New World...

.

Infrastructure

Following the arrival of Cruz Azul, there have been many renovations to make the stadium safer, comfortable and appropriate to the needs of viewers.

Has:

• 2 professional football locker rooms
• 2 dressing preliminaries
• 2 dressing referees
• A Press Conference room with capacity for 50 people
• A closed-loop system of seven cameras in the stadium spread
• The Estadio Azul has a total capacity of 35,161 spectators (including 92 boxes) and a total of 23 double access doors each.