It’s still the world’s largest football stadium with all places seated, but Estadio Azteca has just lost a few thousand of its capacity. That’s how the latest sponsoring deal with the country’s top beer brand works.

Estadio Azteca is known to be the biggest existing stadium used for football that has all of its places seated. However, major overhaul has just ended yesterday, seeing last benches replaced by individual seats.

The change was possible as largest beer brand in Mexico (Corona) established itself as a sponsor along Coca-Cola. While the soft drink manufacturer is visible on the lower tier, Corona is now exposed on all four sides of the pitch in the upper sections. Corners are devoted to stadium anchor tenant, CF América, whose crest was created in each of them.

The replacement of seats started in January. By February 6 the first phase was ready, making the stadium look like this.

Photo: Rodro85

By last week’s Mexico’s game against USA only 2,000 seats were still not mounted onto the stands, but stadium managing company assures they’ve been installed over the past weekend.

The change not only changes Azteca’s appearance, but also its capacity. Previously standing at 105,064 people, the number of spectators was later reduced by some 2,000 to 103,000, while currently it stands at roughly 101,000 seats. It’s still the largest venue worldwide to provide individual seats for everyone, but currently less than 2,000 more than Barcelona’s Camp Nou, largest venue in Europe.