Movistar Arena (Bogotá)

Movistar Arena, previously known as Coliseo Cubierto El Campín, is an indoor sporting arena located in Bogotá, Colombia. It was built in 1973 and renovated in 2018. The arena capacity is up to 14,000 people and it hosts around 90 shows per year. . Telefónica's cell phone division Movistar bought the arena's naming rights, changing its name in March 2018 for the next 20 years. Tennis matches Notable tennis players that have played at the arena include: Andre Agassi vs. Pete Sampras Anna Kournikova Karolína Plíšková Ashley Harkleroad Rafael Nadal vs. Novak Djokovic (Game played on 20 March 2011. It was a sold-out event, more than 13,000 people attended the event.) Roger Federer vs. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga History As El Campín Coliseum The estate on top of which the arena and neighboring buildings (such as El Campín Stadium) are built was donated to the city by Leonilde Matiz de Camacho and Luis Camacho Matiz, wife and son of Nemesio Camacho respectively, on 9 December 1937. In 2011, following 16 years of lease to the private sector, the coliseum came back to the hands of the city government. On 19 January 2011, the District Institute of Recreation and Sports (IDRD by its Spanish-language initials) was informed in Bogotá City Council that the stage required reinforcement and technical improvements that required the IDRD to reduce the coliseum's capacity, thus recommending the city government the demolition of the stage, all for the construction of new installations for the city. Faced with the possibility of demolition, some citizens opposed it, manifesting that the building had an important architectonic and historic value for the city. Due to these circumstances, the city government contracted a series of technical and feasibility studies that would help take a decision. Renovation On 14 January 2015 the IDRD and the Mayor of Bogota announced the "coliseum" would be renewed completely over the following two years. It would be a multi-event arena named Arena Sponsor Bogota which will have all the amenities needed be able to accommodate more elaborate events.. The upgrade expanded the arena's yearly capacity to more than one million spectators every year, as the new facilities allowed for quicker turnaround times, enabling it to host more than 90 events annually. The renovation works themselves started in 2018. While the administration of the stadium was still in the hands of the IDRD, its operation was put in the hands of the Colombian branch of Spain's Telefónica (behind its brand Movistar) though a 20 year-long public-private alliance starting in 2018. As Movistar Arena On 11 October 2023, four days after the October 7 attacks and in the first days of the Gaza genocide in Palestine, the arena projected the flag of Israel over its façade. Following outrage in social media over the belief the city government was behind the projection, the arena's Twitter account said that the projection of the Israeli flag was something done as "an act of human solidarity" by the communication team of the arena's administration without involvement of the city government whatsoever, as the arena is now administered by private company Colombiana de Escenarios. Other events In the arena there had been also many shows such as High School Musical The Ice Tour, and Disney on Ice. The WWE hosted their first house show in Bogota on 23 August 2019. Concerts See also List of indoor arenas in Colombia Simón Bolívar Park Bogotá Corferias Arena Vicente Fernández Gómez References External links Google Earth for Coliseo Cubierto El Campín Info and Pictures History Coliseo Of El Campín