The collective "Últimes Vesprades a Mestalla" and several architects have called a meeting to present their alternative to resuming work on the Nou Mestalla: remodeling the current stadium. They argue that modernizing Mestalla is "a realistic decision" compared to Valencia's project, whose budget is "insufficient and misaligned".

A last-minute alternative

With barely 6 weeks to go before the deadline by which the machinery must return, after more than 15 years, to Nou Mestalla, a group of architects and the collective Últimes Vesprades a Mestalla (Last Afternoons at Mestalla) have proposed an alternative to Lim's Valencia project: Mestalla per al futur (Mestalla for the future).

The group, which as it describes, works to recover the memory of Valencia CF was created in August 2008, with the Nou Mestalla works still underway. Its articles and initiatives reflect a strong attachment to the historic and iconic field of the bats, which today is the second older professional soccer ground in Spain, surpassed only by El Molinón.

© Bartosz Otorowski, Sonia en Polonia

Realism in the face of uncertainty

The collective has called for Monday, December 2 at 18:00 an open meeting at the College of Architects of Valencia. Its objective is to present and discuss its proposal for the remodeling of Mestalla, on which they have been working with a group of experts for several months, according to El Diario.

The meeting will be attended by, among others:

• Josep González, industrial engineer and representative of Últimes Vesprades a Mestalla,
• Iván Cabrera, director of the School of Architecture of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV),
• Ernesto Colomer, PhD in Civil Engineering and professor at the UPV,
• Rafael Rueda, member of the Advisory Board of the Master's Degree in Concrete Engineering of the UPV,
• Jorge Milla, PhD in Law and professor of Financial and Tax Law at the University of Valencia.

© Mark Schofield

They highlight their concern about the insufficient and mismatched budget and a preliminary and incomplete project, but also about the state of the skeleton of the Nou Mestalla. They claim that remodeling is a realistic decision in the face of the lack of a credible project for the Nuevo Estádio.

Mundo Deportivo assures that sources of the collective believe that the project is far from what was presented in terms of finances and doubts about structural problems have not been resolved, among others because of the skeleton of the Nou Mestalla, which has been exposed to erosion due to atmospheric conditions for a decade and a half. They assure that staying in Mestalla and remodeling it is absolutely viable since it was prepared for it.

The representatives ask that any decision regarding the future stadium take into account in a comprehensive manner other possible alternatives.