Diana D

Monterrey built its World Cup stadium out of steel because the city got rich on steel. Then they shaped it like a brewing still, a nod to the breweries the city was also built on. Start with the roof. It reaches 55 meters out over the seats, about the length of an Olympic pool, and holds itself up with no columns underneath. The whole roof rests on a three-legged steel frame, so nothing blocks the view from a single seat. That roof is not even on both sides, and the lopsided shape was on purpose. The architects at Populous, the firm behind Wembley and Tottenham's stadium, dropped the height from about 46 meters on one side down to 32 on the other. The low side opens a clear view of Cerro de la Silla, the saddle-shaped mountain that sits behind the city. They angled the whole bowl around keeping that peak in view during the game. Inside, the stands are tilted at 34 degrees, one of the steepest angles in Mexican football. The front row sits 9 meters from the grass. At the club's old ground, fans were stuck 27 meters back, so the new design cut that gap by roughly two-thirds and dropped 53,500 people right on top of the action. Monterrey hits 40 degrees Celsius in summer, around 104 Fahrenheit, and the building cools itself with barely any air conditioning. The steel facade has angled slots cut into it that fans nicknamed gills. They catch the breeze and push it through the bowl while hot air rises and slips out the top. More than a third of the surrounding land is left as green space that soaks up rainwater and filters it back into the groundwater under the city. It became the first football stadium in North America to earn LEED Silver, a green-building rating that scores energy and water efficiency. The whole thing cost around 200 million dollars and ran entirely on private money. FEMSA, the beverage company that owns the club, paid for all of it with no public funding, which made it the most expensive stadium ever built in Mexico at the time. Ground broke in 2011, the doors opened in 2015, and the sheer scale of the metal earned a nickname that stuck: El Gigante de Acero, the Steel Giant. Most stadiums close themselves off from what is around them. Monterrey did the reverse, and the result is a mountain framed in the open end of the bowl, in plain view above the stands while a World Cup match plays out below.

The firm behind Wembley and Tottenham's stadium designed a football ground in Mexico, then pointed it at a mountain. They dropped the roof on one end so the open side frames the Cerro de la Silla, the saddle-shaped mountain that rises over Monterrey, sitting right behind the pitch. That view in the clip came first. The architects, a firm called Populous, built the stadium around it, and they have said the mountain was one of the biggest reasons it looks the way it does. The roof stands tall on the north side and slopes down toward the south, opening up so the mountain fills the gap above the stands. The roof is one solid piece that reaches 55 meters out over the crowd, longer than an Olympic pool, with nothing holding it up from underneath. It shades fans from a summer sun that climbs past 40°C, or 104°F. The sides stay open so the air keeps moving. Instead of closing the place up and running air conditioning, Populous cut "gills" into the metal shell, angled to catch the breeze and push warm air up and out. The building cools itself. The metal shell is a nod to the city's past. Monterrey built its fortune on steel and had the first iron and steel foundry in Latin America, so the stadium is wrapped in steel and aluminum, which got it the nickname "El Gigante de Acero," the steel giant. The lopsided, sweeping shape comes from an odd place: the outline of old brewing stills, a tip of the hat to the beer-making the city has done since 1890. Inside, they pulled the crowd right on top of the grass. The first row sits 9 meters from the field. At the club's old ground, it was 27. The stands tilt back at 34 degrees, one of the steepest angles in the Mexican league, packing all 53,500 seats close to the pitch, which is part of why it gets so loud. FEMSA, the drinks giant that owns the club, paid for all of it. The bill came to around $200 million, making it the most expensive stadium ever built in Mexico when it opened in 2015. In 2024 it became the first stadium in Latin America to earn LEED Gold, a major green-building rating, for how it handles energy and water. So the view in that clip was drawn into the plans years before they laid the first beam. The whole building is a frame, and the mountain is the picture.