Estadio Azteca· built byUuser-e8a0f3

Estadio Azteca 31

• 1961 Construction begins in a lava bed Mexico City, Mexico The site at Santa Úrsula sat on volcanic rock, which had to be blasted out to sink the pitch twelve metres below ground level.
• 1966 Estadio Azteca opens Mexico City, Mexico The only stadium to host two World Cup finals, in 1970 and 1986, and the setting for both the Game of the Century and Maradona's Hand of God and Goal of the Century in the same match. Capacity 87,523.
• 1966 The opening match Mexico City, Mexico América played Torino in front of 107,000, with a kickoff taken by Gustavo Díaz Ordaz and a message broadcast from Pope Paul VI.
• 1968 Olympic football final Mexico City, Mexico Hungary beat Bulgaria 4–1 in a final that finished with only seven Bulgarians on the pitch, at the Mexico City Games.
• 1968 The Olympic football tournament Mexico City, Mexico The Azteca hosted the final of the Mexico City Games, the first Olympics held in Latin America.
• 1970 Brazil win the World Cup Mexico City, Mexico Brazil beat Italy 4–1 with a side often called the greatest ever assembled, and kept the Jules Rimet trophy permanently as three-time winners.
• 1970 The Game of the Century Mexico City, Mexico Italy beat West Germany 4–3 in the semi-final, with five goals scored in extra time. A plaque at the stadium commemorates it.
• 1971 The stadium's first Copa América era matches Mexico City, Mexico Mexican club and international football consolidated around the Azteca, which by then held every major national fixture.
• 1975 Pan American Games Mexico City, Mexico Mexico City hosted the Games and used the Azteca for football, adding to a run of major events in under a decade.
• 1983 Mexico is awarded the World Cup at short notice Mexico City, Mexico Colombia withdrew as host on cost grounds, and Mexico stepped in with stadiums it had already built, making it the first country to host twice.
• 1985 The earthquake Mexico City, Mexico A magnitude 8.0 quake killed thousands in Mexico City. The Azteca, built on flexible volcanic ground and engineered for it, came through undamaged and the World Cup went ahead.
• 1985 The stadium survives the earthquake Mexico City, Mexico A magnitude 8.0 earthquake killed thousands in Mexico City. The Azteca was undamaged, and Mexico kept the World Cup it had taken on at short notice.
• 1986 Argentina win the World Cup Mexico City, Mexico Argentina beat West Germany 3–2, making the Azteca the first stadium to host two World Cup finals.
• 1986 The Hand of God and the Goal of the Century Mexico City, Mexico Maradona scored both in the same quarter-final against England, four minutes apart — one with his fist, the other after running past half the England team.
• 1986 The opening ceremony and Mexico's run Mexico City, Mexico Mexico reached the quarter-finals in front of home crowds, their best World Cup performance until the same stage in 1994.
• 1993 Michael Jackson plays five nights Mexico City, Mexico The Dangerous tour filled the stadium five times, at the time the largest concert run ever staged in Mexico.
• 1993 The first NFL preseason game Mexico City, Mexico American football arrived at the Azteca before it did anywhere else outside the United States and Canada.
• 1994 The Copa América and club football Mexico City, Mexico Mexican clubs began competing in South American competition, bringing Libertadores and Copa América fixtures to the ground.
• 1997 Cruz Azul move in as tenants Mexico City, Mexico The Azteca became home to a second club alongside América, a shared arrangement that has come and gone ever since.
• 1999 Confederations Cup final Mexico City, Mexico Mexico beat Brazil 4–3 in front of a full Azteca to win the tournament, still one of the country's few senior international titles.
• 2001 The Cuauhtémiña Mexico City, Mexico Cuauhtémoc Blanco's trademark move, hopping between two defenders with the ball trapped between his feet, became the Azteca's signature piece of football.
• 2004 Olympic qualifying and the rise of the youth teams Mexico City, Mexico The stadium hosted qualifying for Athens, part of the run that led to Mexico's Olympic gold in 2012.
• 2005 First NFL regular season game outside the United States Mexico City, Mexico Arizona played San Francisco in front of 103,467, the largest crowd for a regular season NFL game at the time.
• 2009 The World Cup qualifier at altitude Mexico City, Mexico The United States lost again at the Azteca, extending a run in which they had never won a competitive match there — a record that stood until 2012.
• 2013 A renovation cuts capacity Mexico City, Mexico Seats were widened and boxes added, reducing the ground from 105,000 to around 87,000 and ending the era of six-figure crowds.
• 2016 The NFL regular season returns Mexico City, Mexico Houston played Oakland in front of 76,473, restarting an annual fixture that had lapsed after 2005.
• 2017 A regular season game is moved out Mexico City, Mexico The pitch was judged unplayable days before an NFL fixture and the game was relocated to Los Angeles, an embarrassment that forced a full resurfacing.
• 2019 Cruz Azul and América share again Mexico City, Mexico Both clubs played their home fixtures at the Azteca, giving it a fuller calendar than any other stadium in the Americas.
• 2022 Confirmed for a third World Cup Mexico City, Mexico FIFA named the Azteca as a venue for 2026, making it the first stadium anywhere to host matches at three World Cups.
• 2024 Closed for renovation Mexico City, Mexico The ground shut for a rebuild ahead of the 2026 World Cup, which will make it the first stadium to host matches at three different tournaments.
• 2025 Renamed for the tournament Mexico City, Mexico The ground was rebranded under a sponsorship deal for the 2026 World Cup, a change that drew immediate objections from supporters.