Los Pajaritos · Profile

The Nuevo Estadio Los Pajaritos, home of CD Numancia in Soria, was inaugurated on 14 January 1999 with a friendly between the Soria side and Real Zaragoza, which the visitors won 3-1. The ground is owned by Soria City Council and took its name from the municipal stadium the club had used until then, which stands right next to it. It sits more than 1,000 metres above sea level, which accounts for the cold of its winter fixtures, and the pitch measures 101 by 68 metres.

Construction and design

Work began in September 1998 and finished in January 1999, after roughly five months of building, at an approximate cost of 12 million euros. The design used wooden beams in the structure, a choice made with the city’s harsh climate in mind. The stadium was also one of the first football grounds in Spain built to comply with accessibility regulations. When it opened, it held 9,052 seated spectators.

The old Los Pajaritos

Until 1999 Numancia played at the old Estadio Municipal Los Pajaritos, a basic athletics stadium with a small cantilevered stand on the west side and less shelter from the wind than the new ground. That was the era of the 1995-96 Copa del Rey, in which Numancia, then in the Spanish third tier, knocked out three top-flight clubs. The move to the new stadium coincided with promotion: at the end of the 1998-99 season, the same campaign in which the ground opened, the club reached the Spanish top flight for the first time.

The top-flight years

Los Pajaritos first hosted La Liga football in the 1999-2000 season. Numancia stayed in the top division for two campaigns, until relegation in 2001, and returned for the 2004-05 season, which ended in 19th place and another relegation; that same year the team reached the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey. After winning the Spanish second division in 2007-08, Numancia went back up for 2008-09. On 31 August 2008, on the opening matchday of that league season, Numancia beat FC Barcelona 1-0 at Los Pajaritos with a 13th-minute goal from Soria-born Mario Martínez. It was Pep Guardiola’s first league match as Barcelona coach. The team was relegated at the end of that season, its fourth in the top flight since the stadium opened.

Heating and reduced capacity

In the winter of 2016 a heating system was installed across every area of the stands, using gas-fired radiant heaters designed to create a perceived temperature of between 15 and 18 degrees Celsius. It was first used in February 2016, during a Spanish second division match against Mallorca. In the 2017-18 season the highest league attendance was 8,068, with an average of 4,064 per game. From the 2019-20 season the capacity was set at 8,261 seats, after the top row of every stand was removed to meet league regulations.

From Segunda B to Primera Federación

Numancia’s relegation to Segunda División B in 2020 opened a period in Spain’s non-professional divisions. In 2021 the team dropped to Segunda Federación, the fourth tier, and in the 2021-22 season it won direct promotion to Primera Federación, the newly created third tier of Spanish football. The 2022-23 campaign, the club’s first in that division, ended with relegation back to Segunda Federación in 2023.

Spain’s under-21 side in Soria

Between 1999 and 2025 the Spain under-21 team played three matches at Los Pajaritos. On 4 June 1999, a few months after the inauguration, Spain beat the Netherlands 4-1 in qualifying for the 2000 European Under-21 Championship. On 5 June 2011 they drew 1-1 with Russia in a friendly, with Ander Herrera scoring for Spain. On 5 September 2025, at the start of qualifying for the 2027 European Under-21 Championship, Spain defeated Cyprus 3-0 with goals from Rafel Obrador, Yarek and Pablo García.