Estadio Ramón Tahuichi Aguilera
Estadio Ramón "Tahuichi" Aguilera Costas is a multi-purpose stadium in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. It is used mostly for football matches, on club level by Blooming, Oriente Petrolero, Destroyers, and Royal Pari. The stadium has a capacity of 38,000 people and was opened in 1940. It was also one of the official stadiums for the 1997 Copa America as well as a number of international continental tournaments, such as the Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana. Organized by the Tahuichi Academy, every year during January this stadium hosts one of the greatest youth football tournaments in the  world, the "Mundialito Paz y Unidad." Past participants of the U-15 tournament have included Real Madrid, Benfica, Atlas FC, Vasco da Gama, River Plate, Colo-Colo and many youth national teams. History. Name Changes. At first it was named "Estadio Departamental de Santa Cruz", then in 1972 following the death of auto racing legend Willy Bendeck in a local competition, the decision to name the departamental stadium after Willy Bendeck was finalized. In 1979 the Tahuichi Aguilera football academy was invited to an international U-15 soccer tournament to be held in Argentina. The team came to be crowned tournament champion , which created a decision to rename the stadium in recognition of the founder of the Tahuichi Academy (Ramón "Tahuichi" Aguilera Costas), to be called Estadio Tahuichi Aguilera whose name it has today. Renovations. The stadium is currently under an extensive renovation that began in 2014. The renovations will cost 48 million Bolivians. The first phase of the project includes new bathrooms, a subterranean parking lot, new changing rooms, security cameras, renovated suites, and renovated press cabins. Phase One was completed in 2016. Phase Two consists of new lighting, addition of seating, referee locker rooms and doping rooms. The third phase  was completed in late 2019. The stadium is currently in the 4th phase. When the renovations are over, the capacity will be increased to 40,000.