Indoor arena in Monterrey, Mexico
Arena Monterrey is an indoor arena in Monterrey, Mexico. It is primarily used for shows, concerts and indoor sports like indoor soccer, arena football and basketball. It used to be the home arena of the Monterrey Fury indoor soccer team and the Fuerza Regia, a professional basketball team in the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional; the Monterrey La Raza, a team in the NISL; and the Monterrey Steel, an indoor American football team in the National Arena League.
The Arena Monterrey is owned by Publimax S.A. de C.V. (TV Azteca Northeast), part of the Avalanz Group, who owns 80% and by TV Azteca who owns 20%. The arena is 45,000 m2 (480,000 square feet) in size.
History
The project of the arena started in 1989 when the Asociación para el Fomento de Deporte y Recreación A.C, led by the businessmen Jorge Lankenau and Hernan Garza presented the project to the then president Carlos Salinas. The project gained support from the Government of the State of Nuevo León who gave the land for the arena to be constructed within the limits of Fundidora Park.
The arena was originally planned to begin construction in May 1992, and finished by 1993, but the construction actually started in January 1994, and was planned to be finished by 1996. However, due to the 1994 economic crisis in Mexico, in May 1995 the project suffered a slowdown in the construction industry and finally came to a complete halt by 1996, due to the lack of economic resources.
In April 2001, the Government of the State of Nuevo León invited 11 groups of investors to discuss the possibilities of restarting the construction of the arena. On June 1, 2001, the government announced that there were only five groups of investors willing to take over the debt and finish up the project and 2 weeks later, Publimax S.A. de C.V. was announced winner of the contest because it was the group with the most money eager to invest in the project (US$50 million).
Before the construction was restarted, Hernán Garza accused the government of illegally revoking the concession that was given to him to build and finish the project. The government revoked the concession because of the halt of the project in 1995, but Garza alleged that the economic crisis obliged him to stop it for some time. This, among other problems such as the government delay in giving full control of the arena and Publimax rejecting any investment until control was fully given (which happened in July 2002), caused the project to restart by the end of 2002 with an estimated finish date by the first trimester of 2004.
However, by the last trimester of 2003, the project was almost completed and the first event in the arena took place on Thursday November 27, 2003, with a concert performed by Mexican singer-songwriter Juan Gabriel.
