Estadio Daniel Alcides Carrión

Estadio Daniel Alcides Carrión sits above four thousand metres of thinning air in the Simón Bolívar district of Cerro de Pasco. The city is built on the remains of a mine, and the ground reflects that history. It is the highest professional football stadium in the world. The altitude does not merely exist here; it defines the game. Visitors find the air thin, and the difficulty in maintaining a natural pitch forced a change to synthetic turf during a renovation in 2012, a shift that has remained in place ever since.

The stadium was constructed in the 1960s, though the precise date of its first opening is not recorded in available sources. It was later renamed to honour Daniel Alcides Carrión, a medical student who died in 1885 after proving that Carrion's disease was caused by a bacterium. The connection between the town's industrial past and its sporting present is solid. The pitch is artificial, a necessity for survival in this climate.

Unión Minas has called this ground home since the 1960s. The venue gained a reputation as a difficult place for visiting teams, a status cemented by matches like Universitario de Deportes' 2-1 victory on June 25, 2000. Substitute Luis Alberto "Betito" Carranza scored the winning goal and collapsed from exhaustion, requiring oxygen to recover. That match remains a reference point for the physical toll the altitude imposes. The club played their last top-flight match here on December 16, 2001, before relegation, but the ground continues to host matches for Ecosem Pasco. A major improvement project began in February 2026, involving an investment of approximately 45 million Peruvian Soles to renovate stands and infrastructure to meet Liga 2 requirements following the transfer of usage rights to the Regional Government of Pasco. The work is ongoing, and the stadium remains distinct. It is not just a football ground; it is a structure built to withstand a unique environment, and it continues to serve the community that lives above it.