The 1960’s were not great time for Sevilla Fútbol Club. The first team struggled to keep pace in La Primera and were eventually relegated at the end of the 1967-68 season. As for the reserve team, who had been formed in 1960, they were stuck in the Tercera. Despite all the doom and gloom, Club President José Ramón Cisneros Palacios purchased 125,000 square metres of land to the south east of the city, just over the Rio Guadaira and set about building a sports academy. Opened in 1974 it immediately became the home of Sevilla Atlético who to that point had played their matches at Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán.
Known originally as Sevilla Atlético Club, success came early to the club as two Tercera titles were secured, before promotion to La Segunda in 1962. That jaunt lasted a season and they dropped back to the Tercera until Segunda B was established in 1977. The next 30 years saw the reserves flit between the third & fourth tiers on six occasions, before gaining promotion back to La Segunda in 2007. Promotion saw the main arena at the Ciudad Deportiva developed into an open air 5,100 seat enclosure, using essentially temporary stands on the east and north sides and new seats added to the only existing permanent structure on the west side. This was an open wedge shaped stand, with a short cover at the rear.
Sevilla Atlético recorded their highest ever placing of 9th in La Segunda in 2007-08 season, before finishing bottom the following season, and returning to their historically natural level. There followed 7 seasons in the third tier, recording a series of lower half finishes, before promotion back to La Segunda was achieved in 2016. The return to the second tier coincided with the the first major construction at the Ciudad Deportiva. A full length stand with a cantilevered cover was erected on the west side of the stadium. It seats 2,016 on a single tier, and includes new media facilities at the rear. The temporary stands remain on the north & east sides, raising the new capacity to 8,000. The redevelopment coincided with the main arena being named, somewhat confusingly, the Viejo Nervión, after the Sevilla’s old stadium that stood next the the present site of the Ramón Sánchez Pijuán.
Estadios de España 