The Estadio Mestalla was inaugurated with a friendly match on 20 May 1923 between
Valencia and
Levante. The new stadium had a capacity of 17,000 spectators, which was increased to 25,000 four years later. During the
Civil War, the Mestalla was used as a
concentration camp and storage warehouse. It would only keep its structure, since the rest was an empty plot of land with no terraces and a grandstand damaged during the war. During the 1950s, the Mestalla was renovated, resulting in a stadium with a
seating capacity of 60,000 spectators. It was severely damaged by the
flood of October 1957 when the
Turia River broke its banks. The stadium soon returned to operational use with some more improvements, such as the addition of artificial lighting, and was inaugurated during the 1959
Fallas festivities. In 1969, the stadium's name was changed to Estadio Luis Casanova, to honour club president
Luis Casanova Giner. The change lasted for a quarter of a century, when Casanova admitted that he was completely overwhelmed by such an honour and requested in 1994 that the stadium's name be returned to the Mestalla. 1972 saw the inauguration of the club's head office, located in the back of the numbered terraces. It consisted of an office designed in the
avant-garde style with a trophy hall, which held the flag the club was founded on. The summer of 1973 ushered in another change at the Mestalla, the introduction of goal seats, which meant the elimination of fourteen rows of standing room
terraces. == Future ==