El Nacional, El coloso del barrio Morazán, | |
 National Stadium: 'Chelato Uclés' ofTegucigalpa. | |
 Interactive map of Estadio Nacional José de la Paz Herrera Uclés | |
| Full name | Estadio Nacional José de la Paz Herrera (Chelato Uclés) |
|---|---|
| Former names | Estadio Nacional Tiburcio Carías Andino |
| Location | Tegucigalpa,Honduras |
| Owner | Government of Honduras |
| Operator | CONDEPOR |
| Capacity | 35,000 |
| Field size | 105 x 65 m |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction | |
| Built | 1946 |
| Opened | 15 March 1948; 77 years ago (1948-03-15) |
| Expanded | 1978 |
| Architect | Francisco Pratts |
| Tenants | |
| Olimpia (1948–present) Motagua (1948–present) Lobos UPNFM (2017–2021) Pumas UNAH (1972–89; 1996–2007) Real Maya (1992–97) Federal (1974–78; 1999–2000) Honduras national football team | |
TheChelato Uclés National Stadium (Spanish:Estadio Nacional Chelato Uclés) is amulti-purpose stadium inTegucigalpa, Honduras. It is used mostly forassociation football matches. The stadium has a capacity of 35,000 and is the home of football clubsMotagua andOlimpia. This is one of the oldest stadiums in Honduras and has an important historical role for it, since emblematic matches in the history of Honduran Football have been held in this stadium, as well as concerts and presidential inaugurations.
The National Stadium of Tegucigalpa's construction was approved during the administration ofTiburcio Carías Andino with a decree issued by then Minister of EducationÁngel G. Hernández[1] and finished in 1948. The stadium was theHonduras national football team's home stadium inFIFA World Cup qualification for many years. In 1955 hosted theCCCF championship, later in 1967 hosted the CONCACAF Championships.
In 1978, the stadium was host to 6CONCACAF nations (Honduras,Mexico,El Salvador,Canada,Haiti andCuba) for qualifying matches for the1982 World Cup, which saw Honduras qualify for a World Cup for the first time ever.[2] Since the 1998 completion ofEstadio Olimpico Metropolitano, Estadio Nacional has no longer hosted the majority of the Honduran national team's home fixtures.
The stadium has undergone changes over time, some of less importance and others of greater importance, among them is the remodeling of the stadium prior toNORCECA in 1981, increasing the capacity of this sports facility to 34,000 spectators.
The stadium hosted the2009 UNCAF Nations Cup, wherePanama won its firstCentral American championship andNicaragua qualified for its firstGold Cup.
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With the purpose of getting the qualifying matches of the Honduran soccer team towardsSouth Africa 2010, for the National stadium; the president of the National Commission for Sports Facilities (CONAPID), officially announced on April 9, 2007, the purchase abroad ofsynthetic grass by the government of the Republic. The removal of the grass, repairs to the drainage, leveling of the playing field and expansion of the same, as well as the sowing of the new natural grass of the Bermuda type, which is the most suitable for playing football.
On February 8, 2009, the giant screen placed in the national stadium was turned on for the first time; many years went by without a suitable electronicscoreboard for this monument to sport. The screen was donated by a mobile phone company Tigo2 at a cost of 544 thousand 96 US dollars (10 million 337 thousand Lempiras), with dimensions of 15 meters long and 10 meters wide. It weighs about 4,500 pounds (2,041 kg) and has a capacity of 549 trillion colors, built in blocks, to facilitate future repairs. The display was made by Hi Tech Electronics.
On March 9, 2022, theNational Congress of Honduras managed to rename the stadium as "José de la Paz Herrera Uclés", in honor of the soccer coach of the same name and better known asChelato Uclés, who died the previous year.
Since the stadium had not received mentoring for more than a decade and since it was becoming obsolete due to the new standards, the change of its grass was announced, since it was imported fromEurope, in addition to the installation of 18,000 new seats in the other areas of the stadium, this in addition to the process of repair and remodeling of the bathrooms of the same.[3][4]
Around this time, the stadium would become the de facto home of theHonduran national football team, likely due toEstadio Olímpico Metropolitano, the previous home stadium, being obsolete.
By 2023, the new hybrid grass had been installed in the stadium, and a few months later, the reconstruction of the north part of the stadium had begun, with competition estimated for late 2025. When it’s finished, the north part will have a roof, 5,000 seats, and a shopping center below.
The Stadium is mainly used forassociation Football matches since the late 1940s, several iconic matches have been played inside it, specially the so-called capital superclassic, the most watched match at the national level where the two main rival teams Olimpia and Motagua face each other.Estadio Nacional Chelato Uclés has also hosted the following major international football events:
Gridiron football has also been played inside the stadium, the most popular being the American Women's Football championship known as the Americas Womans Bowl.[5] The National Federation of American Football of Honduras (FENAFAH), in coordination with the sports leagues that activate this organism; they launched the new game seasons for this sport.[6]
The stadium has been used on several occasions for concerts by artists such asDaddy Yankee,Luis Miguel andVicente Fernandez. For this they have had to be restored since during them the capacity of the stadium increased.
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14°5′54″N87°12′14″W / 14.09833°N 87.20389°W /14.09833; -87.20389
