What are Latin America's Biggest Stadiums?

FIFA recently announced that 100 years after the first World Cup was held in Uruguay, South America will host 3 of the games for the 2030 World Cup. Some fans didn’t like the decision, because due to rotating rules, it means that South America can’t fully host in 2034. The region had one of the strongest bids with Uruguay–Argentina–Chile–Paraguay. A more distant future South American joint bid, like the Spain-Portugal-Morocco and Canada-Mexico-USA will very likely happen. The region has no shortage of massive stadiums to host.

However, massive stadiums in LatAm are being succeeded by newer, smaller ones — only two of the ten largest stadiums were built in the 21st century.

Why is this the case? A bit of soccer history helps explain this trend.

Soccer started gaining popularity throughout the 20th century. Uruguay's Estadio Centenario — the oldest stadium on our list — hosted the first World Cup in 1930.

As the sport and the World Cup gained global popularity, Latin American teams (just the usual 3) won championships, and, with that, the region gained notoriety and the privilege to host often.

This privilege brought the need for countries, in collaboration with private initiatives, to build infrastructure (aka huge stadiums) around "the beautiful game." A golden era in stadium building came to the region, whose heritage still stands in the form of iconic stadiums such as River Plate's in Argentina, Monumental de Lima in Peru (surprisingly 3rd on our list), and — the largest of them all — Estadio Azteca in Mexico.

As the sport's in-person attendance growth reached a plateau in the latter part of the 20th century, partly thanks to mass video streaming, the need for colossal stadiums ceased.

Newer stadiums have less capacity and are geared towards a pleasant visitor experience. A clear example of this is BBVA Bancomer Stadium in Monterrey, Mexico. Our list's newest stadium offers 324 suites, two restaurants, a commercial area, and parking space for 3.5K cars.