Estadio Santa Laura – Universidad SEK

Estadio Santa Laura carries a name that split in two once ownership did. For most of its life it honoured Laura de Córdova, mother of the man who founded Unión Española, and that plain dedication held until 2009, when Universidad SEK bought the club and took over the ground under a thirty-year concession.

What sets it apart from a newer arena is who built it and how. Construction began in October 1922, and the work was carried out not by contractors but by the club itself, then still known as Ibérico Balompié, with its own members — Spanish immigrants who put up their ground with their own labour before the official opening in May 1923.

A reconstruction in 1931 added the building known as the Castillo, designed by the architect Antonio Martí Vidal.

The pitch itself is a hybrid bermuda grass, chosen for its tolerance of drought and heavy use rather than for looks.

Unión Española remain the ground's main tenant and, through the company Inmobiliaria Unión Española, its owner — so the club that built Santa Laura by hand in the 1920s never actually let go of it, even after Universidad SEK's name went up alongside its own.