Estadio Olímpico Ciudad de Ibarra

Ibarra opened its Olympic stadium on 4 August 1988, and it stayed a municipal ground until the town needed something bigger: a South American under-17 championship was coming, and on that same calendar date seven years later, 4 August 1995, the rebuilt arena reopened under its current name and passed from the city into the hands of the Imbabura Sports Federation. That version hosted a World Cup group — Brazil, Germany, Oman and Canada played their under-17 group-stage fixtures here — and the same generation-tournament pattern held for years afterward, with under-17 continental finals returning in 2007 and 2011, and an under-20 edition in 2017.

What sets it apart from Ecuador's other provincial grounds is how often it has stood in for someone else's stadium. Quito clubs without a usable home ground — LDU, Aucas, Espoli, El Nacional among them — have taken turns playing "home" fixtures here, ESPOLI's 2011 Serie A game being one instance on record. It works, in part, because Ibarra sits well away from the capital's fixture congestion and altitude arguments, while still offering a proper pitch and a running track added in 2005, the year the ground also staged the national athletics championship.

One afternoon put the stadium briefly into the news for reasons that had nothing to do with football: on 4 July 2023, a match between Independiente Ibarra and La Cantera was stopped after a helicopter made an emergency landing on the pitch.

Tenancy today is split between three clubs — Imbabura Sporting Club in the top flight, Leones FC, who moved in for the 2025/26 season, and second-division San Antonio FC — a arrangement that keeps the ground busy well beyond its original athletics-and-youth-tournament purpose.