A FLAGSHIP World Cup 2030 venue is poised to complete an incredible transformation.
Barcelona and Real Madrid will open Seville’s new-look La Cartuja Stadium on April 26.
The site was built for the World Athletics championships in 1999.
But there will be few signs of its famous track and field pedigree once the revamp is finished.
The athletics track has been ditched – as just one of several major changes.
But the stand-out development is an increase in capacity by more than 15,000 to 72k.
Meanwhile, a new ring of stands has been installed to underline the dramatic re-think.
Spain’s sporting chiefs reckon it will be the third main venue at the World Cup in five years’ time, behind only the Bernabeu and the Nou Camp.
La Cartuja was a key part of Seville’s bid to host the summer Olympics in 2004 and 2008.
The area in southern Spain is sometimes labelled as “Europe’s hottest city”.
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But although athletics has warmed to the venue, the presence of La Cartuja was not enough to win the Games for Seville.
However, it did host a thrilling 2003 Uefa Cup final, in which Porto beat Celtic 3-2, when a little-known rule came into play.
Entering extra time at 2-2, the Scottish giants had Bobo Balde sent off in the 96th minute.
That gave Porto hope of winning it with a “silver goal” – whereby the team leading after the first additional 15 minutes takes the trophy.
But the Portuguese club failed to net in that quarter of an hour.
Instead Porto triumphed through Derle notching his second goal of the night shortly before the end of the added half-hour.
Seville boasts two LaLiga clubs in Sevilla and Real Betis – but both use their own grounds.
But La Cartuja is Spain’s fifth largest sports stadium and the national team occasionally play there.
And when Betis were banned from their Manuel Ruiz de Lopera stadium in 2007, they switched to the sweeping stadium for a game against Villarreal.
Not only that, Betis will use the ground while their own Benito Villamarín stadium is redeveloped later this year.
La Cartuja has hosted two Davis Cup finals in tennis, four Copa del Rey finals from 2020 to 2023 and was used at Euro 2020.
And it was there that athletics saw one of the great world records of modern time.
American legend Michael Johnson clocked 43.18 seconds for the 400m in 1999, a time unsurpassed until South African Wayde van Niekerk ran 43.03 in Rio 17 years later.
But its final hour is scheduled for a decade after that – when the World Cup comes to Spain for only the second time.
