Chivas’ big day nears and new stadium still has no permit

Zapopan City Hall has yet to grant a license for the new 45,000-seat Chivas stadium that will enable the July 30 inaugural game against English football giants Manchester United to go ahead as scheduled.

Several conditions stipulated by Zapopan Mayor Hector Vielma and agreed by Chivas owner Jorge Vergara on October 20 are still to be met.

Primarily, 40 million pesos (3.1 million dollars) that Vergara promised as a down payment for his part in the funding of the stadium’s access roads has not been deposited in municipal coffers, according to Vielma. Work on the main access road has yet to begin.

Despite his hard-line stance over the past few months, Vielma this week provided some hope that the July 30 game could go ahead by suggesting a temporary license might be granted.

“We can grant a provisional license, but the principal requisite is that (Vergara) comes up with the 40 million pesos,” said the mayor. (Vergara, a business magnate who owns the multi-level Omnilife nutritional supplements empire, told the Guadalajara press this week that he was ready to pay but didn’t know which bank account to deposit the money.)

Even if the ancillary road work around the stadium is incomplete, the game could still be played as long as municipal inspectors deem the site safe, Vielma said.

And while the stadium itself may be finished on time, the limited access and parking, and inevitable traffic and transport chaos on the day, could transform the opening game from a showpiece into a media disaster.

Located at the corner of the Periferico (city beltway) and Avenida Vallarta, the stadium has taken more than five years to complete. As well as hosting all the games of the Guadalajara Chivas – Mexico’s most popular soccer team – it will also be used for concerts and other large-scale public events.

Fans of Manchester United – who habitually travel around the world to see their team perform – have been complaining on fan websites about the disorganized nature of the planning of the game. Even Manchester United officials are telling fans hoping to travel to Guadalajara that they “don’t know” how to go about getting tickets.

Wrote one fan from Manchester on www.manutd.com: “I hope we get news sooner rather than later. I’m all paid up for both flights and hotel and would really rather not be traveling out there just to see a mariachi band - as much as I loved ‘Desperado.’”
Chivas’ website says tickets will be on sale “soon,” but the reality is that they can’t be put on sale until a license is granted.