Article updated: 21/09/2025
There are numerous examples of a club’s success being boosted by a move to a new stadium. A new build can reinvigorate a club, and the fresh surroundings can attract a wider fan base and generate more revenue. Then, every so often, a new stadium is opened that fails to do any of these things. Poor planning can coincide with a downturn in a club’s fortunes, and what you are left with is a half-empty, soulless arena that nobody loves. Welcome to the (Nuevo) Estadio Municipal de La Victoria.
During the late 1990s, Real Jaén Club de Fútbol began to show snippets of form that had made them a mainstay of La Segunda in the 1950s. They had even made it to La Primera for three seasons in the middle of the fifties. After winning promotion to the Second Division in 1997, the club and the local municipality decided that its home for nearly fifty years, the tight, inner-city Estadio de La Victoria, was outdated. Rather than redevelop the stadium, the local council sold this prime site, and work commenced on a new stadium to the east of the city. Architects Rubiño García Márquez were commissioned to design the modern 12,569-seat stadium, which would feature a covered west stand and three open banks of seating. So far, so good. The first problem, however, was location. Jaén is a small, ancient city with tight, narrow streets. The club’s fans were used to walking a few hundred metres or so to the old stadium and immediately baulked at the idea of a three-kilometre journey to the new stadium.
Real Jaén was relegated at the end of the 1997-98 season, but as plans for the new stadium progressed, so did form on the pitch. A fourth-placed finish in 1999-00 saw the club enter the end-of-season playoffs, where they overcame the challenges of Gimnastica Torrelavega, Gramanet, and CD Ourense. A promising first season back in La Segunda, when a tenth place was achieved. Real Jaén played their final match at the old Estadio de La Victoria on 17 June 2002, and they moved to the new stadium with genuine hope that their new surroundings could inspire a push for promotion to La Primera.
The Nuevo Estadio Municipal de La Victoria opened its doors for the first time on 29 August 2001 and four days later held its first official game, as Real Jaén beat Club Polideportivo Ejido 3-1. That was about as good as the 2001-02 season got. Restricted financially by its conversion to a limited company, Real Jaén proceeded to lose ten matches at home and accumulate as many points away from the new stadium as it did in it. Form completely evaporated in the final third of the season, and relegation was confirmed in the penultimate match, when the club lost 0-3 to Real Murcia at the Estadio La Condomina. Real Jaén finished bottom of La Segunda, eight points from safety, and spent the summer preparing for life in the third tier… It just wasn’t meant to start like this!
Over the next decade, form in Segunda B nearly always saw a top-half finish, and occasionally a run in the play-offs. The play-off matches at the end of the 2008-09 season did see the stadium full to capacity for the first time, when Ponferradina and Villarreal B visited. The second match against Villarreal B saw additional temporary seating added to the upper decks on all three open sides of the ground, raising the capacity to over 17,000. The dream didn’t materialise, however, as Villarreal B ran out 1-2 winners. After over a decade in the third tier, promotion to La Segunda was achieved in 2013, thanks to playoff wins over Lleida Esportiu and Huracán Valencia CF. The visit to La Segunda was brief and ended a year later, when a “Winner Survives” tie in the final fixture of the season saw Deportivo Alavés score 3 times in the last 10 minutes to condemn Real Jaén to relegation. The club has been on a downward spiral since 2014 and has languished in the fourth & fifth tiers since 2017.
To be frank, the stadium cannot take too much blame for the club’s demise. Whilst it does not have the convenience and intimacy of the old La Victoria, Real Jaén’s die was cast when it became a Sociedad Anónima Deportiva or limited company. With little immediate income to maintain its position in La Segunda, the club was unable to loosen its constricting financial chains. In turn, the stadium has become a bit of a whipping boy for all that has gone wrong. Yes, the stadium is a couple of miles out of town, and you can no longer breathe down the back of the neck of the opposition goalkeeper, but a bad stadium? No, not at all. Rubiño García Márquez’s design is certainly minimalist but perfectly functional. Access to the stadium is raised, and spectators walk up to the back of each seated area, across a raised deck area and then down into their seats. The main west stand has mid-level vomitories at its rear, which bring spectators to the front of the stand. This stand’s roof is surprisingly low, with its cantilevered beams clad in brushed aluminium, which has hundreds of circles cut into the façade. The changing facilities are below the main stand, as is access to a training/warm-up area that lies under the pitch.
The design was heralded as the way forward for small-town clubs and won awards and praise in architectural circles. Interestingly, whilst the design has had its imitators, Rubiño García Márquez has not built another stadium, although they did submit unsuccessful bids for the new stadium builds in Zamora & Almería. In August 2021, the council of Jaén took steps to regain control of the Estadio Municipal de La Victoria from its tenants, Real Jaén. The stadium had been effectively abandoned in a state of disrepair following the club’s demotion to the Tercera Federación at the end of the 2020-21 season. Real Jaén failed to fulfil the first fixture of the 2021-22 season against CF Motril, but later in September, the Fomento y Promoción del Real Jaén became the majority shareholder and brought about a degree of stability. In 2023, the metal cladding on the roof of main roof was replaced and the exterior was revamped with new signage and neon lighting in a fetching shade of purple, to match that on the club badge. The parking lot was extended and the troublesome playing surface was relaid.
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