The current reserve side of Deportivo Alavés can be traced back to the late 1950s, when keen to corral Vitoria’s young footballing talent, the club’s directors set up an official reserve side under the name of Atlético Alavés. Up to that point, the club had relied on formal agreements with feeder clubs throughout the region of Álava. The reserve side started in the local amateur leagues and played fixtures at the Campo de Educación y Descanso. Following the first team’s promotion back to La Segunda in 1961, the club made the decision to purchase the license of works team Imosa Club de Fútbol, and take their place in the Primera Regional. This coincided with a change of name to Deportivo Alavés Aficionados and a move to the Estadio Mendizorroza. The First XI’s promotion did not herald a bright new dawn, as the soon returned to the Tercera. Worse was to follow in 1970 when Deportivo Alavés dropped a further level, the very level that the reserve team occupied. Rather than agree to the demotion of the reserve team, the club decided to suspend activity and focus all activity on the First XI.
What was initially planned to be a brief period of inactivity, ran into three long seasons. Eventually, with the first team back in the Tercera, the reserves returned to competitive football. Now under the name of Deportivo Alavés Promesas, the club played its football in the Segunda Regional. Home was still the Estadio Mendizorroza and with a degree of stability return to the club, Deportivo Alavés Promesas started to climb the leagues. A name change back to Deportivo Alavés Aficionados followed in 1977 and promotion to the Tercera was earned in 1979 when UD Arechavaleta was defeated 3-2 in the play-offs. There followed a period of four seasons in the Tercera, with a highest placed finish of 8th achieved in 1982.
By this time, Deportivo Alavés Aficionados had moved out of the Estadio Mendizorroza to the club’s new training complex, the Ciudad Deportiva de Ibaia which was situated to the south-west of Vitoria. As is often the case, the reserves form mirrored that of the first team. By 1986, the First XI had dropped back to the Tercera, whilst Deportivo Alavés Aficionados spent the 1986-87 season in the Primera Regional, which due to restructuring, was now the sixth tier of Spanish Football. They returned to the Regional Preferente a year later, and here they would stay for the next seven seasons.
Estadios de España 