Bilbao expands the rugby space at the Erikalde Sports Center with a new building of 950 square metres.

The budget for this work is approximately 1.3 million and the work is expected to start in May and end in December 2023.

BILBAO, March 13 (European Press) –

The Bilbao City Council will expand the rugby space and services at the Errekalde Sports Center with the construction of a new building located next to the existing stands, giving it continuity and respecting its height. The new infrastructure will have an area of ​​more than 950 square meters, spread over two floors.

In addition, the changing rooms and hot and cold water pool area located under the existing pavilions will be expanded, according to the Bilbao City Council report.

The intervention is also considering the construction of a tower in which audiovisual recordings can be made from an elevation perspective with respect to the pitch. This tower is located in the southern part of the field in front of the stands.

The Youth and Sports Adviser, Etxo Irutita, presented the project on Monday, accompanied by the President of the University of Bilbao Rugby, Aitor Djurigi, and the representative of the club, the only representative in the villa is the sport.

Erroteta emphasized that with this action, the City Council “provides more space and services for a sporting modality, rugby, which increasingly has more athletes and fans in the villa and that in the Errekalde Sports Center is the only rugby arena approved to host European matches in Bilbao” .

In addition, the Mayor noted that the promotion of rugby and its values ​​is one of 100 priority initiatives, framed in the fifth line of action: culture and sport, “understanding rugby as a tool for training and generating positive values ​​for young people and as a supporter of healthy leisure that can contribute to the improvement of the well-being and health of citizens and to achieve the basic structure necessary to support a rugby team in the highest category.”

The budget for these works is €1,274,000 and the works are expected to start in May 2023 and last eight months.

The work includes redesigning the existing infrastructure. Thus, the construction of this new building has been added to the redesign of the existing space under the stands, which is 106.89 square meters and which will be intervened to expand the area of ​​the existing changing room and the hot and cold water showers.

These works are limited to the interior of the infrastructure without rebuilding affecting the envelope, as defined by the city council.

As for the tower, it will be a space from which audio/visual recordings of both matches and training sessions can be monitored/recorded, with a view from a height above the pitch. The tower is located in the southern part of the field in front of the stands.

University of Bilbao Rugby

Universitario Bilbao Rugby is the only team in this sport in Villa and is based in the Errekalde Sports Centre.

This club has 458 players, divided into 17 teams that play in different categories. Among them, the All-Around, Veterans and Lamiak UBR teams, made up of women, mostly mothers of boys and girls who play for the club, stand out.