Estadio Monumental "U"

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Inside view of Estadio Monumental “U”

The Estadio Monumental “U” in Lima is Peru's largest and most modern stadium. It is also considered one of South America's newest and most modern stadiums, with an 80,093-spectator capacity, although the maximum capacity could be expanded to 96,500 by retrofitting terraces in the northern and southern stands and using the bottom tier of suites for businesses, as it was originally meant to be. The stadium was built to conform to FIFA's manual of technical specifications for stadiums. Inaugurated on July 2, 2000, the stadium, though belonging to GREMCO (a Peruvian construction company), became the new home venue of Universitario de Deportes, replacing the team's old stadium, Estadio Lolo Fernández, also in Lima. The stadium's first game was Universitario de Deportes vs. Sporting Cristal, with the former winning by 2 to 0. It is also used for games of Peru's national football team, which previously used the Estadio Nacional (capacity 42,000). The stadium is the second largest football stadium in South America.

It is interesting to note that this stadium was rejected as a venue for 2004 Copa América because of problems with Alfredo Gonzalez, President of Universitario de Deportes, and the stadium's owners. Many saw this as a typical bullying behavior on the part of Universitario's president since this stadium would have been the perfect venue to host the 2004 Copa América intro as well as final games.^{[citation needed]}