Estadio San Carlos de Apoquindo, also referred to as Claro Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium, in Las Condes in the metropolitan region of Santiago de Chile. It is used mostly for home matches stadium of the Chilean top club Universidad Católica which also owns the stadium. The stadium was built in 1988 and currently holds 20,000 people. The stadium hosted an Copa Interamericana final, among other events such as Copa Libertadores, Copa Sudamericana and Copa Mercosur matches. Chilean league championships and cups have been held at this venue, mostly in favor of Universidad Católica. The stadium also hosted the Chile national football team in five matches of the Qatar 2022 qualifiers.

History

Universidad Católica has owned four stadiums: Estadio Universidad Católica, located in the Maestranza and Marcoleta sector; Campos de Sports de Ñuñoa, which already had an extensive history in Chilean sports; Independencia, located in the homonymous commune of Santiago and inaugurated on October 12, 1945; and San Carlos de Apoquindo, which opened its doors on September 4, 1988. The football stadium was not the whole complex, the stadium had also rugby, athletics and some other sport fields. On the grass of San Carlos de Apoquindo, Universidad Católica has won various trophies. For example, in the Chilean Primera División in the seasons 2002 (Apertura tournament), 2010, 2016 (Clausura tournament), 2019 (Season where the team received the trophy at home without playing the last games due to the social outbreak of that year) y 2020. San Carlos de Apoquindo also knew about international competitions. In 1994, Católica faced Saprissa of Costa Rica in the final of the 1993 Copa Interamericana, winning with an aggregate score of 6-4 (3–1 in favor of each team in the round-trip matches, and 2–0 in the extension of the revenge game). In that final game, Juvenal Olmos' goal was essential to force overtime when the final minutes of regulation time were played. The highest attendance for a football match at San Carlos de Apoquindo to date is 20,936, for a 0–0 tie between Universidad Católica and Cobreloa on November 1, 1992.

Concerts

The stadium has hosted concerts by famous artists, spanning many different genres. The number of recitals performed that same year in San Carlos is recorded in parentheses. Along with some of those already mentioned, there were other artists who performed at the old Events Center (Centro de Eventos), attached to the stadium. These include Lisa Stansfield, Camilo Sesto and Air Supply.

Video clips & music

Part of Pearl Jam's "World Wide Suicide" clip was filmed in the dresser rooms of the stadium. Roxette's hit "It Must Have Been Love" (Live In San Carlos de Apoquindo) was included in their Tourism album (1992). In the booklet it reads: Vocals: Marie Fredriksson / Backing vocals: 45.000 Chilean fans.