Riyadh Air Metropolitano

Atlético de Madrid's modern stadium in eastern Madrid, renamed Riyadh Air Metropolitano in 2024, offering pitch-side tours through Territorio Atleti.

Line 7 to the eastern edge of the city

Start with the distance, because it is the thing most guides skate over. The stadium sits at Avenida de Luis Aragonés 4, in San Blas-Canillejas on the far eastern edge of Madrid, well outside anything a visitor would recognise as the centre. Metro Line 7 runs to Estadio Metropolitano station, which is a two-minute walk from the gates, and that is the only sensible way in — but it is a long ride from the tourist core, with a change onto L7 required from almost anywhere you are likely to be staying. Allow the best part of an hour door to door each way and plan the day around that rather than pretending it slots between two other sights. If you are working out connections, the getting around Madrid rundown covers the transfers.

The upside of that isolation is that nothing about the arrival is confusing: you come up from the metro and the stadium is there in front of you.

Wanda, Cívitas, Riyadh Air: booking around a name that changes

This building has had three commercial names in under a decade. It opened in 2017 as the Wanda Metropolitano, under a deal with the Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group. In 2022 it became the Cívitas Metropolitano when a Spanish property developer took over the naming rights. Since October 2024 it has been the Riyadh Air Metropolitano, under a reported nine-year agreement with the Saudi airline worth somewhere between €250 and €300 million and running through 2033.

The practical consequence is real, not trivia. Third-party ticket sites, mapping apps and older signage all lag behind, and searching the wrong name will hand you dead links or, worse, confident-looking listings for events that no longer exist. When booking, check that whatever platform you are using reflects the current name, and cross-check against the club’s own channels. Whatever it is called this season, it is the same ground and the same club.

From the Manzanares to La Peineta

Atlético de Madrid played at the riverside Vicente Calderón for decades before moving here in 2017. The Calderón was subsequently demolished as part of the wider redevelopment of the Manzanares corridor — the same programme that produced Madrid Río and turned the old abattoir further along the river into Matadero Madrid. Fans of a certain age still talk about the old ground with more affection than they do about this one, which is worth knowing before you tell an Atlético supporter how impressive the new stadium is.

The site itself was not empty. It held La Peineta, an athletics stadium built in the 1990s as part of Madrid’s repeatedly unsuccessful Olympic bids, which Atlético took over and rebuilt as a dedicated football venue. It opened in September 2017 with a capacity of around 70,000, among the largest in Spain, and the design is unapologetically purpose-built: steep stands, tight sightlines, no running track between crowd and pitch. It also acquired a major-event record unusually fast, hosting the 2019 UEFA Champions League final within two years of opening.

What €20 and ninety minutes get you

Tour tickets start at around €20 for adults, with discounts for children, seniors and groups, and the route is self-guided rather than led — you move at your own pace. Tours generally run 10 AM to 6 PM daily, with last entry 30 minutes before closing. Budget an hour to an hour and a half.

The route covers the Territorio Atleti museum, pitchside and tunnel access, the dressing room areas and the press room. The standard ticket is the sensible choice; the premium add-ons do not change the core of what you see, and there is no free-entry window to wait for. Photography is permitted along the route, with the usual exceptions in technical and security zones. As a purpose-built modern venue it is fully wheelchair accessible, with lifts covering the entire public route rather than stairs.

Seasonally it is a year-round proposition, but parts of the route cross open-air seating, so water and sun cover matter for a midday visit in July. In winter the museum and most of the interior sections are indoors and comfortable.

Territorio Atleti, and the case for Madrid’s other club

The museum is the part that justifies the journey for anyone who is not already a supporter. Alongside the trophies, it deals directly with Atlético’s identity as historically the second club in a two-club city — the working-class counterweight to Real Madrid across town, with a fanbase whose loyalty is defined partly by not winning. That framing tells you more about Spanish football culture than a trophy cabinet does, and it is handled with more self-awareness than most club museums manage. Younger visitors are well catered for too; the interactive and pitch-view stops hold children’s attention as effectively as adults’.

Fixture days, and when tours stop

The calendar governs everything here. General tours are typically suspended in the hours before kickoff on match days and access arrangements change entirely, so checking the fixture list before you book is not optional. Weekday mornings on non-match days are quietest, weekday afternoons busier, and weekends plus pre-kickoff windows are the peak.

If you can get a match ticket instead, take it — Atlético’s support is among the most intense in Spanish football and the ground was built to amplify it. That is a different visit from the tour, not a better version of the same one, and the two rarely fit into a single day.

The area around the ground

There is very little out here beyond the stadium. Casual bars and food kiosks ring the plaza and they fill up on match days, when the area comes alive for several hours before kickoff and that atmosphere is arguably worth as much as anything inside. On a non-match day, the surroundings are quiet and unremarkable, and the right plan is to see the stadium, get back on Line 7, and eat somewhere central — La Latina or the bars around Plaza de Santa Ana are a far better use of an evening than anything within walking distance of the ground.

For exterior photographs, the plaza in front of the main entrance frames the angular metal facade best, and early evening light picks out its geometry more clearly than flat afternoon sun. Inside, the pitch-level photo point built into the tour route is the shot everyone takes, and it earns it.