If you are a second-tier club investing tens of millions of euros in a new training ground, you are making your ambitions clear: to be great again, but in the right way. That is the case with Eibar, the Basque club who last played in La Liga five years ago and who have made a return to Spain’s top flight their aim this season. The season has started well. The squad is largely unchanged from last year, but the biggest change has come in the dugout, with Aranbarri arriving from Athletic Bilbao just a few months ago, dropping down a division with the intention of going straight back up. Los Armeros are currently second in the table, but the club’s ambitions extend well beyond the pitch.
This week, Eibar opened its new Ciudad Deportiva de Areitio, an imposing 11-hectare complex that, for the first time, brings all of the club’s teams together in one place. The project is worth around €30 million, funded through the club’s own resources and support from LALIGA Impulso, LaLiga’s programme to help smaller clubs invest in their infrastructure.
Located in Alto de Mallabia, the new complex, as reported by El Confidencial, includes five football pitches, a building with a stand for around 1,600 spectators and a dedicated facility for the men’s first team. With the work now complete, Areitio becomes the centre of Eibar’s football operation, serving not only the first team but also the women’s side and the academy. Until now, Eibar’s football operation had been spread across several facilities in the area. The first team spent 11 years at Atxabalpe, made available by the municipality of Arrasate, while the academy was based at facilities including the Chancha Zelay esplanade and the Unbe complex.
“Ipurua has been our home for almost 80 years, but what we are opening today is the place where this club is formed, from the academy to the first team,” said SD Eibar president Amaia Gorostiza. At the opening ceremony, LaLiga president Javier Tebas highlighted the role of LALIGA Impulso in supporting projects such as Eibar’s. “LALIGA Impulso was created to allow clubs to invest in what truly drives the long-term growth of football. Areitio is the concrete realisation of that objective. This new Ciudad Deportiva will be the best legacy for future generations of footballers and the engine of SD Eibar’s sporting and institutional growth for decades to come,” he said.
Among those attending the inauguration were Basque Government lehendakari Imanol Pradales, Basque Government vice-president and Minister of Culture and Language Policy Ibone Bengoetxea, Eibar mayor, Tebas and Spanish Football Federation president Rafael Louzán. At the heart of the new complex is the 3,000-square-metre “high-performance” building designed by KREAN for the men’s first team. It houses the dressing rooms, gym, recovery areas, technical and operational spaces, dining room and press room. The building is directly connected to the training pitches and also incorporates aerothermal systems and photovoltaic panels for energy generation. For the academy, the move to Areitio brings every age group together in a single facility. It allows the different teams to work more closely and gives Eibar the chance to apply a common approach throughout the development of its players, from their first steps in football to the first team.