Estadio Municipal "Zorros del Desierto" de Calama ( ) is a football stadium in Calama, Chile, owned by the municipality of Calama. It is the home field of the Cobreloa football team and is sometimes used by the Chile national football team to serve as their home ground. This stadium was used as the homeground of Deportes Iquique in the Copa Libertadores 2017 and of Cobresal in the Copa Libertadores 2024. This is the fifteenth largest stadium in Chile by capacity in 2024.

The present stadium, opened in 2015, replaced the old Estadio Municipal de Calama, built in 1952 by the Abaroa family to provide sports facilities for the city and demolished in 2013. The stadium seats 12,346 people and includes zones for disabled people. The stadium was built to FIFA standards and logistics.

This stadium was cited as one of the best in the world in 2015 by the Database of Stadiums. The stadium was considered the smallest and least expensive among the participants. It finished in 19th place with 14,837 points.

The former mayor of Calama, Esteban Velasquez, said that the maintenance costs were 300 million CLP, mainly directed to the maintenance of the court, dependencies and officials working in the enclosure. It is fully funded by the municipality. Cobreloa paid a commission to the municipality of around 800,000 CLP per month to help in the maintenance of the stadium through May 2016.

Name The first stadium name proposal was to honour former Cobreloa player Fernando Cornejo, who died in 2009. It became the name of the stadium project in 2010. However, this project name was not given to the stadium.

In April 2014, in a reunion between local authorities, it was decided that the name would be chosen by Calama mayor, Esteban Velazquez, and the Consejo de Sociedad Civil (Cososi). The proposed alternatives were: Arena, Pucará, Vicente Cantatore, Mario Lira and Fernando Cornejo.

NameVotesZorros del Desierto1088Fernando Cornejo Jiménez937Héroes del Topater825Corazón Minero Calama518Río Loa355Sergio Stoppel García210Alturas del Loa195Héctor Puebla Saavedra135Coloso Minero106Mario Lira Solas89Defensores del Topater87Glorias del Desierto86Roberto Rodríguez Antiquera65Nicolás Tschishow Titow8References

Ultimately, the name was decided through voting, through a campaign called "Ponle nombre al Municipal de Calama". With a video titled 'Corporación de Cultura y Turismo de Calama', the municipality invited the community of Calama, Chile, to propose names. Initially seven names were proposed, but the registration period was extended in September 2014. Eventually 4,721 voters chose among 14 proposals. The winner was the 'Zorros del Desierto' option, with 1,088 votes. The second, the third and the fourth places were used to name different areas of the stadium. The Mario Lira option was taken to name the media cabins.

History

Estadio Municipal de Calama

The Estadio Municipal de Calama was a multi-use stadium in Calama, used mostly for football matches and it was the home stadium of Cobreloa until 2012. The stadium held 13,000 people (seating capacity),

The generally accepted date for the opening of the Estadio Municipal de Calama is 1952. There are references, however, from before that date concerning a stadium in Calama. In the municipal minutes dating back to 1932, where the mayor reports on agreements made based on public proposals, the presentation and possibility of establishing organizations, including stadiums, is reported. This was due to the immediate concern for modern venues. In the municipal minutes of 1933, during discussions about the purpose of the budget to be used for the municipal slaughterhouse, the Director of Works suggested dividing the budget between this project and the construction of the municipal stadium.

On Wednesday, December 23, 1942, an extraordinary session was held under the President of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile, Pedro Castelblanco, in which one of the points to be discussed was the authorization to the municipality of Calama to contract a loan to build municipal structures, which was 12 million Chilean pesos in total, of which 200 thousand pesos of that were given for the completion of the municipal stadium. At that time, the mayor of Calama, Mr. Ernesto Meza Jeria, met with the Minister of Finance, Guillermo del Pedregal, to authorize the city municipality to obtain the special loan, which would be used in the network of buildings projected in this area. Mr. Pedregal's idea was to improve the visibility of the sector and reduce the rate of alcoholism in it.

The stadium's ownership has been registered in the name of the municipality of Calama, under the ownership of the El Loa Real Estate Registrar, since 1945.

In 1948, activities were recorded in the stadium, such as the national football championship held there, in which representatives of associations from Antofagasta, Pedro de Valdivia, Chuquicamata, Maria Elena and Calama performed.

On October 11, 1959, the Chilean Amateur Football Championship was launched, where the matches to determine the champion of this tournament were chosen as the venue. In order for the city to be able to organize this event, the municipality invested 60 million CLP in the venue, where the stands were expanded, dressing rooms were fitted, the venue was equipped with electric lighting and repairs were made to the field itself. On November 9 of that year, the final was played in the stadium: the amateur team from Calama faced the team of Tomás Bata from Peñaflor, winning by 3 goals to 2.

By 1971, the stadium had a capacity for 10,000 people, and had lighting, grass, Olympic-sized fencing, 6 large locker rooms, an athletic track, toilets and ticket offices. The home team was Sport Cóndor, recognised by ANFA, which would later be called Deportes El Loa.

A match took place to commemorate the first anniversary of the nationalization of mineral copper by the Chilean State. Between Deportes El Loa and Colo-Colo, the victory was for the team from Santiago de Chile, by 5–2.

According to the former player of the Cobreloa team, Carlos Rojas, in 1977 when the Loíno team entered professional football, modifications were made to the stadium so that it could host matches of this nature.

After the Cobreloa club won its first national title in 1980, in order to compete in the 1981 Copa Libertadores, improvements were made to the stadium, primarily to the lighting towers. These improvements were carried out by the Coordinación Regional de Deportes y Recreación, as well as to the field, which was managed by CODELCO, Chuquicamata division.

The last match before the stadium was rebuilt was on February 3, 2013, valid for the national football championship of that year. The teams Cobreloa and Deportes Iquique played in front of 4,662 spectators. The match ended with a 4–1 victory for the home team.

According to the financial report submitted by the Cobreloa club in 2013, the stadium's infrastructure that year included: Pácifico sector bleachers with a capacity of 5,208, Ándes sector bleachers with a capacity of 2,850 and north and south sector bleachers with a capacity of 3,952 people. There were also a locker room for referees, a locker room for coaching staff, two locker rooms for local and visiting professional teams, two locker rooms for local and visiting cadet players, an equipped gym, a conference room, an administration office, two cafeterias with customer service and eight ticket offices for home games.

Proposal A new stadium in Calama was first suggested in 2007, when architect Andrés Valle made a model of the project; it was well received by the authorities. This showed that the community and the private sector were interested in a new venue. In 2008, Cobreloa representative Gerardo Mella proposed the project to the authorities of Calama. With the consultation of the company Alberto Saltori y Asociados, Cobreloa would dedicate CLP 35 to 40 million to this project.

In 2009, on Chile, the President Michelle Bachelet announced the inclusion of Calama in the third phase of the 'Estadios Bicentenario' projects. Representative Marcos Espinoza had referred to the project financing with an amount of CLP 300 million, either for a renovation or a new structure.

In 2010, parliamentarian Marcos Espinoza announced to the media the possibility that this project would be not included in the 2011 budget.

On March 15, 2010, the design of the Municipal Stadium project began. The project was awarded a total of 70,000,000 CLP, was scheduled to last 80 calendar days, and was scheduled to be completed in October of that year, financed by the mining company El Abra. The first stage of the design consisted of a location study, preliminary delivery of the preliminary project and architectural design, a soil mechanics study, and a road study. The second stage consisted of the engineering design. The architects of this project were Ricardo Judson Bilbao, Roberto Olivos Marchant, Javier Ávila Burrows, and Isabél Perelló Rosés, represented by the group Judson y Olivos Arquiectos. The projected surface area for the project was approximately 17,500 square meters and the projected materials were prefabricated concrete structures, steel, stone veneers and copper cladding. The project included 4 entrances to the stadium, and the roof of the structure would be made with Stripweave cladding by Hunter Douglas.

On July 15, 2011, the Regional Investment Draft was made public, outlining the investments made in the Calama Stadium project prior to 2012. The statement detailed public spending by funding source: the Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Regional invested CLP 800,000,000, and the municipality of Calama invested CLP 1,500,000.

In August 2011, the municipality of Calama presented the 2010 plan, which included a preliminary project, for the remodelling of the Municipal Stadium. This stadium would increase the capacity of spectators to 15,000, and would also have synthetic grass, closed circuit television, snack areas, parking and lighting. In its first stage of construction, it contemplated the construction of 8,500 seats.

In 2011, Chilean President Sebastián Piñera announced that $170 million U.S. dollars was to be invested in improving the infrastructure of Chile's stadiums through the 'Chilestadios' project, in which the Estadio Municipal de Calama was included.

On May 14, 2012, a vote was held on the agreement that led the Illustrious Municipality of Calama to determine the cost of financing and maintaining the project, amounting to CLP 311,772,636, provided that the project was approved and financed by the Regional Government.

The ultimate project was shown to Calama mayor, Estebán Velásquez Nuñez, in 2012. In this phase of the project the Consejo Regional decided how the amounts would be distributed. The Instituto Nacional del Deporte (IND) allocated CLP 5,000 million to the project. The technical team of the municipality of Calama led by Gloria Aliaga was in charge of different project phases. In July 2012, the then president of the republic, accompanied by the general secretary of government, Andrés Chadwick and the undersecretary of sports, Gabriel Ruiz Tagle, officially presented the project to the community in general.

The municipality of Calama had to deposit the project at the Banco Integrado de 'Proyectos del Ministerio de Planificación Social'. The resource allocation of the 'Fondo Regional of Desarrollo Social' was subtracted by the 'Consejo Regional' of Antofagasta Region to enter the tendering.

The proposal was for a concrete structure with 12,000 individual seats, including a place for disabled people. The project had 4 floors, with dressing room for the players and referees, hygienic services, snack hall, media area, first aid hall and LED screen. The field dimensions were 105 x 68 meters with natural grass. The design was inspired by the aging copper bars in order to provide identification to the community in the area.