Several years after the creation of the
Empresa Eléctrica del Ecuador sports club, its founder, George Lewis Capwell, decided that it was time for the club to have its own
Baseball stadium, so in 1942
Guayaquil's Municipal authorities donated 4 city blocks for the construction of the first private sports stadium in Ecuador. A year after that, in 1943, Emelec's staff officially named and initiated the construction of the George Capwell Stadium. George Capwell Stadium opened its doors for the first time on 21 October 1945, the inaugural game was a Baseball match between Emelec and Oriente, and George Capwell played as a catcher for the "Azules" (Emelec). Although Emelec's president did not like football and their stadium was not initially intended to be a football field, soon after the inauguration the first football match was held. Emelec won 5–4 against an all stars team from the cities of Manta and Bahia. The 1947
Copa America competition was held exclusively at George Capwell Stadium, and an undefeated
Argentina became South America's champion with an all star team that included names like
Alfredo Di Stéfano,
Félix Loustau, and
Norberto Doroteo Méndez.
Ecuador finished in 6th place. (Brazil did not participate on this competition). After the
Estadio Modelo was opened in 1959, the George Capwell Stadium became obsolete and was closed for many years. On several occasions it was almost destroyed for various projects that, luckily for the club, were never actually completed. It wasn't until 1991 that with the leadership of Nassib Nehme that the George Capwell Stadium was reopened, to become once again the house of Emelec. Since its reopening the stadium has been enlarged twice and a new and final change was scheduled for 2014, to reach a final capacity of 45,000 spectators by March 2016. At the moment the official capacity of the stadium according to the FEF (
Federación Ecuatoriana de Fútbol) is 18,000 spectators. However, that number has not been changed even after the two enlargements were finished. The club completed a thorough overhaul and expansion of the stadium in 2017. It has a capacity of 40,000 spectators.
Training ground Emelec's training ground is located in the north of
Guayaquil in a neighborhood called Los Samanes and the training ground itself is called Complejo Deportivo de Los Samanes, translated to Los Samanes Sports Complex. The construction of the Samanes training ground started in 1984 and was finished in 1986 and was built by
Filanbanco a large financial institution in Ecuador at the time.
Filanbanco had its own professional football which used Los Samanes until 1989 when despite being one of the top teams at the time,
Filanbanco's football club was disbanded due to lack of supporters and high maintenance costs. During the 1993
Copa America held in Ecuador, the Samanes complex was used by the Argentinean delegation, they stayed and trained there and were very appreciative of its secluded nature and excellent facilities, that among other things included 4 professional football fields, an indoor football field, basketball courts, tennis courts, an Olympic size pool, social area and sleeping area. After
Filanbanco's football club was disbanded, the complex remained in the hands of
Filanbanco for their employees to use its facilities, until 1999 when the Ecuadorian financial crisis ended with
Filanbanco going bankrupt and ending up in the hands of the AGD a governmental agency created to control, protect and administer the assets of
Filanbanco and other financial institutions that went bust during the crisis. This meant that Los Samanes ended up in the hands of the Issfa (Instituto de Servicio Social de las Fuerzas Armadas) the Ecuadorian army's social security agency. Because Issfa had no real use for it, the then Football director of Emelec Mr.
Omar Quintana Baquerizo managed to loan the training ground for the club and Emelec has been using it ever since. Initially the agreement was a loan for 5 years, but when the 5 years passed the government and the club arranged a 100-year loan for the facilities, however the high monthly cost agreed has made the payments very difficult for the club and the new administrators led by the club's president Mr.
Elias Wated are in talks with the government to settle on a definitive purchase of the training ground. ==Honours==