Club Sport Emelec is an Ecuadorian sports club based in Guayaquil that is best known for their professional football team. The football team plays in the Ecuadorian Serie A, the highest level of professional football in the country.
Emelec has won fourteen Serie A titles and one of the division B, holding the record of doing so in all decades in which the Serie A has been played. They also have won seven regional titles (record in their region), a record-tying 5 of them in the professional era.
Emelec was founded on 28 April 1929 by George Capwell, the American head of the Electric Company of Ecuador (), from which the club is named after. The name of their home stadium pays homage to the club's founder. The club's most intense rivalry is with crosstown-team Barcelona. Matches between the clubs are known as El Clásico del Astillero.
History
The club was found after an assembly of employees at the Empresa Eléctrica del Ecuador, an electric company in Guayaquil, decided to start an amateur sports league. The initiative was spearheaded by George Capwell, the executive officer of the company who came from the United States. The first sports played in the club were baseball, basketball, boxing, swimming, handball, and football. Capwell did not enjoy football, so the sport was supported only by his employees in non-official but recognized championships. This changed in the 1940s, when Capwell finally lent his support, resulting in the club winning several official local championships, building their own stadium, and hosting the 1947 South American Championship entirely in it.
In 1957, the club became the first national champions in football with a "dream team" that included Derek Haack, Cipriano Yu Lee, José Vicente Balseca, Cruz Ávila, Mariano Larraz, Carlos Alberto Raffo, Jaime Ubilla, Daniel Pinto, Rómulo Gómez and Suárez-Rizzo; they were coached by Eduardo "Tano" Spandre. Since then, they have accumulated thirteen more national titles, placing them 2nd in the national title count behind Barcelona with 15 titles and followed by El Nacional with 13. They have also won seven local titles (two in the amateur area and five in the professional era).
In the 1990s, the football team saw success internationally. In 1995, they reached the semi-finals of the Copa Libertadores; they lost to eventual champions Grêmio. In 2001, the team was close to becoming the first Ecuadorian club to win an international title when they were a finalist in the 2001 Copa Merconorte. In the finals, they lost to Millionarios 3–1 on penalty kicks after tying on aggregate 2–2.
Facilities
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.