MADRID: Atletico Madrid has sealed a deal with the city council to acquire the land where its new stadium is being built, with the agreement set to grant the Spanish LaLiga football club exclusive use of the venue.

Atletico is set to move into its new Wanda Metropolitano stadium, which will have a capacity of 67,000, for the 2017-18 season. The club has played at the 55,000-seat Vicente Calderon since 1966, with its current home having been renovated ahead of Spain’s staging of the 1982 World Cup.

The new stadium had been a proposed track and field venue under Madrid’s failed bid for the 2020 summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. However, the new agreement will mean that it will no longer form part of any Olympic bid explored by the Spanish capital.

The land deal is priced at €30.4m ($32.2m) plus interest, and Atletico has agreed to spend an additional €29.8m to develop the surrounding area of the city, including over 4,000 public car park spaces. An original agreement drawn up in 2008 has been altered as the club is acquiring around 50 per cent more land than first envisioned.

Atletico in December unveiled Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda as the naming-rights partner for its new stadium. Wanda paid €45m for a 20 per cent stake in the club in January 2015. It marked the first Chinese investment in a top-flight European football club.

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