Estadio Christian Benítez Betancourt

Estadio Christian Benítez Betancourt sits inside Parque Samanes, the sprawling recreation ground on Guayaquil's northern edge, which puts the ground on greener footing than most Ecuadorian venues squeezed into dense city blocks. The naming carries its own weight: it honours a Guayaquil-born striker whose career took him through Ecuadorian, Mexican, Spanish and Emirati football before his death, and the tribute is written into the fabric of a park built for public use rather than into a corporate stand name.

The stadium opened in February 2014, with the finishing touches to construction still being applied earlier that same month according to local reporting at the time. Its first Serie A fixture followed in January 2015, played, by most accounts, on an artificial surface — though more recent reporting describes the pitch as natural grass, suggesting the playing surface may have been relaid at some point since. Guayaquil City F.C., formerly known as River Ecuador, has used the ground as its home.

At just over ten thousand seats, the arena is modest by the standards of Ecuador's top flight, closer to a community fixture than a showcase venue. What sets it apart is less about scale and more about setting: a football ground built as part of a public park rather than carved out as a standalone complex.