Reina Victoria

In 1918, due to the redevelopment work that Sevilla City Council had to carry out in Prado de San Sebastián for the future Ibero-American Exhibition, both Sevilla FC and the rest of Sevilla's clubs were forced to abandon their grounds there.

Sevilla FC were forced to look for a new site, and to do so, set up a committee made up of several members of the board of directors, who visited the mayor of the city in an attempt to obtain a municipal plot of land for the club, but the negotiations proved unsuccessful. After this, various sites were considered, including a plot of land in Nervión, just where the old slaughterhouse was located, which is now the Delegation of Education of the Andalusian Regional Government, although in the end a large plot of land on Avenida de la Reina Victoria, now Avenida de La Palmera, was chosen.

The so-called "Campo de Sport del Sevilla FC de la Avenida de la Reina Victoria" was inaugurated on 21 October 1918.It was built after an agreement was reached between President Paco Alba - and the aforementioned commission - and the Marquise of Esquivel, María del Pilar de Carvajal Hurtado de Mendoza, to lease part of the land she owned on the estate known as Casablanca, located at the foot of the Paseo de la Palmera. The son of the Marquise, who was a great football fan and a great Sevillista, managed to convince his mother not to make the rent too expensive, setting an annual amount of 2,000 pesetas. For the second time in its history, the club built its stadium with its own funds. To finance the stadium, the club put 100 bonds up for sale, at a price of 100 pesetas each, to be repaid over five years.

The costs of the construction of the stadium were distributed among different items. 1,350 pesetas for the fencing (dismantling of the fence of the previous Mercantil pitch and its subsequent assembly in the new location) and the levelling of the pitch, work carried out by Manuel Domínguez. In addition, the carpenter José Grosso Barba surrounded the pitch with wooden benches and built a small grandstand 10 metres long, as well as four stands for seating at a price of 6.75 pesetas per square metre.

Finally, a stand was built for 3,000 pesetas, designed and executed by the architect Pablo Gutiérrez.

The hut was used as a changing room and as a house for the groundsman, initially occupied by Eduardo Santizo, father of the player of the same name, and later by Manuel Pérez, El Terrible, a former player of the Club and the first of the Pérez family, so closely linked to Sevilla FC up to the present day. But the hut was not only the groundsman and dressing room, as part of it was also used as a room for the club's medical service, something new at the time, which was taken care of by Dr. Puelles de los Santos. For the first time in the history of stadia in Sevilla, the changing rooms housed a shower.

"...The pitch has undergone some good renovations this year. Pérez has definitively stayed on as groudnsman and will live in the new clubhouse that has been built out of material, at the back of which a room has been made for him to live in with his wife and children.

The room he had before will be used as an infirmary and the same massage apparatus will be installed. The doctor is Mr. José Puelles de los Santos. The first team players have their room with 15 hangers for their equipment and their shower and washbasin (...) The other room is for the board of directors..." (Letter from the club secretary Manuel Zapata to the player Ismael Rubio).

The pitch was equipped with all the necessary elements for the good practice of football. It had stands on all four sides of the ground, and was completely enclosed.

The inauguration took place with a match between Sevilla FC and Unión Sporting Club de Madrid. The first season the following prices were established for the public: Grandstand: 1st row 10 pesetas, 2nd row 9 pesetas, 3rd row 8 pesetas, Row of benches 5 pesetas. The membership fee went up from 2 to 3 pesetas a month.

In 1924, the president Manuel Blasco Garzón carried out another reform, placing two new side stands with new access embankments and achieving a capacity of more than twelve thousand seats.

This stadium achieved great fame, because it was here that Sevilla FC demonstrated its supremacy in Andalusian football, winning up to nine Andalusian Championships. The first match of the Spanish National Team in Andalusia was played here on 16 December 1923, against Portugal, where Spain won 3-0, also producing the international debut of the first two Sevilla players: Spencer and Herminio. On 10 May 1925, it hosted the final of the Spanish Championship between FC Barcelona and Arenas de Guecho.

In 1926 the lease period expired and a moratorium of two more years was reached. During this time, Sevilla FC had up to three fronts open for the acquisition of a new stadium. One of them was in the area of the planned Los Remedios neighbourhood, but it was not carried out due to the refusal of the Ibero-American Exhibition Committee to provide the necessary subsidies to the construction company of Mr. and Mrs. Goizueta. This was due to the fact that the aforementioned committee intended to build the Stadium - as was the case - in the southern sector of the city. The acquisition of some land owned by Genaro Parladé in front of the field on Avenida Reina Victoria was also negotiated, but this did not come to fruition as no economic agreement was reached. Finally, the offer made by the Exhibition Committee itself for Sevilla to take over the operation of the aforementioned Stadium after the Ibero-American Exhibition was studied. Talks in the latter case were held until months before the decision to move to Nervión in 1928.