Highly-regarded no matter the geographic location of our voters, the new football icon of Bilbao reached the runner-up position in Stadium of the Year.

Some say being second is the most bitter position, but Athletic and Bilbao, in fact all of Spain, may be proud of this achievement. The new San Mamés was included in 27,516 votes. That’s more people than we’ve seen voting in the entire edition last year! No wonder the final result of 96,712 is really impressive, even if short of the 1st place.

The vote was quite popular in Spain with big media outlets informing about it, but it needs to be mentioned that the Bilbao stadium came up as one of the best-ranked in many countries, not only Spain.

San Mamés according to our Jury

It’s not a hard guess that the aesthetics of this stadium were highly-regarded. Our Jury gave the stadium a 7.833 note for that aspect (out of 10 possible points), which is one of the highest notes in this year’s edition.

However there were some doubts regarding particular elements, like the red boxes incorporated into the façade. Two of our Jury members argued this spoils the brilliant effect. Altogether the new “Cathedral” ended up in 6th place in the Jury Vote, regarded lowest in terms of value for money (5.800).

Bruno Campos: "The design of the New San Mamés shows us how to turn a football monument (and a "giant cauldron") into a true urban landmark connected to the city and its immediate surroundings."

Mike Bell: “The façade wrap is very striking and with great clarity and stayed true a strong single core aesthetic.  The bowl is very tidy, contiguous and very successful.”