This morning, the Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, accompanied by the Delegate Councillor for Sports, Sonia Cea, and the Councillor of Villa de Vallecas, Carlos González Pereira, inaugurated the city’s first beach volleyball pavilion, built at the Municipal Sports Center Cerro Almodóvar and witnessed an exhibition by elite athletes from the Madrid Volleyball Federation.
«Beach volleyball is a sport that we usually associate with summer, but for the first time, it can be practiced indoors in Madrid,» said the mayor, who sees this as «just a glimpse of what we do in the municipal government so that all Madrilenians have sports facilities near their homes» and that it has been done in an area «where we are especially focused» such as the southeast.
The inauguration coincided with the 50th anniversary of this sports facility, so during the visit, Almeida unveiled a commemorative plaque alongside former Mayor of Madrid, José María Álvarez del Manzano, who inaugurated the heated pools of this center in Villa de Vallecas in 1995.
With an investment of 3.6 million euros, financed by the Development Plan for the southern and eastern districts (Plan SURES), the new beach volleyball pavilion is equipped with two indoor courts and two outdoor courts. To build this new facility, in the first phase of the works, the earth contained in an unused pool was emptied, then demolished, and a new configuration of the pavilion was carried out to install the beach volleyball courts.
Anniversary of the CDM Cerro Almodóvar
The Municipal Sports Center Cerro Almodóvar was the first to open in the Villa de Vallecas district in 1975, after the construction of versatile outdoor courts. A year later, on July 14, 1976, three outdoor swimming pools were inaugurated along with a grandstand with a capacity of 2,000 people, a playground, and two children’s pool basins. Twenty years after its opening, the heated pools were put into operation.
Since its inauguration, various actions have been carried out at the CDM Cerro Almodóvar to improve the different sports units and build new facilities, which are now complemented by the launch of this first pavilion with indoor beach volleyball courts in Madrid, which will allow practicing this sport throughout the year, conducting training for sports clubs, organizing competitions at the highest level, and developing a teaching program for this sports discipline.
With an area of 61,600 m2, the sports center features a short fronton, three summer swimming pools, four covered paddle courts, two multi-sports courts, the two outdoor beach volleyball courts, the beach volleyball pavilion with two other courts of this sport inside, a multi-sports pavilion, a 25-meter long heated swimming pool, another heated swimming pool for swimming lessons, a weightlifting room, two multipurpose rooms, and a multi-work room set up for weight training. /
