naturhouse la rioja · History

The Palacio de los Deportes de La Rioja, opened in 2001 in Logroño, is the home court of Club Balonmano Ciudad de Logroño. The club was founded in the Riojan capital in 2003 and has played under several sponsor names. It was Darien Logroño from 2003 to 2006 and Naturhouse La Rioja from 2006 to 2017, the period in which it settled in the Liga ASOBAL and made its debut in the EHF Champions League. It played as CBM La Rioja in 2017-18 and was renamed BM Logroño La Rioja in 2018.

Foundation and promotion to the ASOBAL

The team made its debut in the Spanish Primera División in the 2003-04 season. It reached the promotion play-offs that year and moved up to División de Honor B, the second tier of Spanish handball, in 2004. In its second season at that level, 2005-06, it finished second and won promotion to the Liga ASOBAL. Its first top-flight campaign, 2006-07, ended in 14th place, with survival secured on the final matchday. The following year it finished 12th. In 2008-09 it climbed to seventh, which earned it a place in the EHF Cup.

First steps in Europe

The club's European debut came on 15 November 2009, in a 30-30 draw with Red Star Belgrade. Logroño went on to knock out the Serbian side, Iceland's Haukar and France's Dunkerque, reaching the semi-finals of the 2009-10 EHF Cup. There it met TBV Lemgo. It won the first leg 30-25 in Logroño on 25 April 2010 but lost the return 34-26 in Germany on 2 May, missing out on the final 56-59 on aggregate. In 2010-11 it again fell one round short of the final, this time against Frisch Auf Göppingen. In the league it finished fifth in 2009-10, ninth in 2010-11 and seventh in 2011-12.

The Naturhouse years among the elite

The breakthrough came in 2012-13. The team finished third in the ASOBAL and reached the Copa del Rey final, with the final tournament staged at its own arena. On 4 May 2013 it lost the final 28-38 to BM Atlético de Madrid. That year it was also runner-up in the Supercopa. It then finished second in the league three seasons in a row, in 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16, with Jota González as head coach. In June 2017 it reached another Copa del Rey final, in León, and lost 29-34 to FC Barcelona. A month later, in July 2017, the sponsorship deal with Naturhouse expired after more than ten years.

The Champions League seasons

Those high league finishes opened the door to the EHF Champions League. The club made its debut in 2013-14 in a group that included HSV Hamburg and Flensburg, and finished fifth in the group stage. In 2014-15 it was drawn with THW Kiel, Paris Saint-Germain, Zagreb and Meshkov Brest, finished fourth and reached the last 16. It played in the competition again in 2015-16 and 2016-17. Its next European campaign was the 2021-22 European League, where it reached the group stage.

BM Logroño La Rioja and the Velasco era

In January 2018 the club announced that Jota González would leave for Paris at the end of the season. His replacement would be Miguel Ángel Velasco, who until then had been the assistant coach. In 2017-18 the team finished fourth and lost another Copa del Rey final to Barcelona, 28-35. Under Velasco it finished third three seasons running, in 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21. In November 2018 the club retired the number 12 shirt of Gurutz Aginagalde, who kept goal for the team from 2005 to 2018. His shirt was hung in the arena next to the number 17 of Rubén Garabaya, who played for the club from 2010 to 2017.

The 2023 finals and the 2026 runner-up finish

In the league, the team was sixth in 2021-22, fifth in 2022-23, fourth in 2023-24 and fifth in 2024-25. On 7 May 2023 it played its fourth Copa del Rey final, in Santander, and lost 23-34 to Barcelona. In December 2023 it lost to the Catalan side again, this time 28-31, in the Copa de España final at the Artaleku sports hall. In 2025-26 it finished second in the Liga ASOBAL for its fourth league runner-up finish, and Miguel Ángel Velasco was named coach of the season.