Development plans for Estadio Azteca bypass Indigenous consultation

Estadio Azteca, located in the Santa Úrsula Coapa neighborhood in southern Mexico City. Image credit: ImageBroker / Uwe Kraft / Alamy.

by Madeleine Wattenbarger.

Next year’s World Cup will be the third to take place at the Estadio Azteca, which is located in the southern Mexico City neighborhood of Santa Úrsula Coapa. In preparation for the 2026 sporting event, Mexico City mayor Clara Brugada has announced a series of public works around Santa Úrsula, a historic Indigenous town, one of dozens now absorbed by the metropolis. But the authorities have yet to carry out the indigenous consultation process required by the Mexican constitution and international law, and neighbors are concerned about the event’s toll on the area’s natural resources.

“In ‘70 and ‘86, there were a lot of people and a lot of money spent, but who took that money home? Here, they didn’t so much as paint a fence,” says Rubén Ramirez Almazan, the traditional authority figure of Santa Ursula’s indigenous governance structure. ”We aren’t against the project, but they have to do feasibility studies, and the people have to decide whether they do the projects or not.” Brugada held a meeting in Santa Úrsula on May 3 to announce the projects, but residents say only members of Morena, the mayor’s political party, were invited.

The plan includes an elevated bike lane from the Zocalo to the Estadio Azteca, a nine-mile stretch planned above the existing metro line, and a remodeling of the existing lightrail train.

“It’s concerning because we don’t have any information about the impact, if there’s any kind of program for security, waste management or the water supply,” adds Natalia Lara Trejo, a resident of Santa Úrsula. She’s one of a group of neighbors demanding more transparency around the World Cup preparations.

Among their concerns is the tourist-driven nature of the plans. “The [influx in tourism] implies an increase in housing prices, an increase in AirBnbs,” Lara Trejo says. “There may be better transportation infrastructure, but that isn’t necessarily enough for all the people who live here and the tourists who will come.”

The town has long suffered abandon by the capital’s authorities: they don’t have a park, a market or a health center. They have access water only a few days a week. During the rainy season, the main avenues sometimes flood to the point of being impassable. The roads around the stadium are often choked with traffic, and during sports events at the stadium, visitors leave Santa Ursula’s narrow streets, many barely wide enough for a single car, littered with waste.

With the anticipated influx of tourists, the neighbors are concerned about their water supply. The neighborhood takes its name from the water that once ran alongside the settlement: in Nahuatl, Coapa means “river of snakes.” But today, locals receive water only a few days a week, while the sports complex is flush. “The stadium has enough to water its grass, while most houses don’t have any,” Lara Trejo says.

The Estadio Azteca - recently re-dubbed the Estadio Banorte due to sponsorship purposes - is owned by Televisa, the telecommunications megacorporation long linked to Mexico’s political establishment, also the owner of Univision. In 2019, the National Water Commission (Conagua) gave Televisa rights to extract 450 thousand cubic meters per year from a well behind the stadium. Four years ago, the neighbors began organizing to demand that the concession be cancelled. Brugada announced this week that Televisa had returned the well’s water to the city. The concession still appears on an official registry, though, and Conagua did not respond to a request for comment.

Brugada also announced that Santa Úrsula’s water pipes would be replaced. Ramirez, the head of Santa Úrsula’s traditional governance structure, says the measure is necessary, as the system is more than half a century old, but neighbors need to be informed about the project first.

Other proposals are less relevant to local life: Among Brugada’s plans for the area is the creation of a dinosaur-themed park, Coyosaurio, the second of its kind in the city. But the plot selected is currently home to a dense ecosystem of flora and fauna. “It’s not fair for them to knock down trees to put in dinosaur figures,” Ramirez says.

As the plans advance, he is determined to make the town heard. “The event is already set in stone, so we have to make sure it works out well for all of us.”