🏟️Antel, Antel Arena and telecoms· 2013-2025

Antel Arena: from a US$40 million announcement to disputed figures

Antel announced a US$40 million complex in 2013. The final cost has at least four different figures — 90.5, 86, 88 and 119.7 million — depending on who measures it.

ShelvedIn the courts

Figure published by the sources

US$ 119,7 millones de costo total según la auditoría que Antel contrató a ECOVIS; US$ 85,995 millones según el Tribunal de Cuentas

Bodies involved

ANTEL

What it is

The Antel Arena was built on the site of the old Cilindro Municipal. Antel, then chaired by Carolina Cosse, announced the project in 2013 with an estimated investment of around US$40 million. The complex opened on 12 November 2018. Since then the real cost has been measured in at least four different ways: a Court of Audit calculation released in January 2019 at senator Pablo Mieres's request, a report by the same body dated 6 March 2019, the figure the Prosecutor's Office treated as official, and an external audit Antel itself tendered in 2020. No two of them agree.

What is questioned

Subrayado reported on 24 January 2019, using Court of Audit data published by the weekly Búsqueda at senator Pablo Mieres's (Partido Independiente) request, that the works exceeded US$90.5 million: some US$8 million more than the US$82 million declared by Cosse, a figure already known before the 12 November 2018 opening. Telenoche detailed that the Court of Audit's 6 March 2019 report added up to more than US$85 million — over US$49 million in civil works, US$2.5 million in project execution and consultancy, US$17 million in equipment and technical fit-out and more than US$17 million in outdoor areas, nursery, public park and sports facilities — and that the Prosecutor's Office treated US$88 million as the official figure. The audit Antel commissioned from ECOVIS put the total at around US$119.7 million (US$120 million, according to Telenoche). Board member Daniel Larrosa (Frente Amplio) rejected that figure on Teledoce: he said "the Antel Arena, by our calculations, cost around 65 million dollars in investment" and that "you cannot add investment and expenses together". Cosse admitted on 180.com.uy: "I made a mistake when I announced the project and stated its cost", attributing the gap to unforeseen changes during construction.

Why it matters to you

The Antel Arena was paid for with the resources of the state telecoms company — the same one that funds the fibre network and 5G and transfers its profits to the Treasury. That the final cost has four different figures, none accepted by all parties, shows how far a public work can go without leaving taxpayers a verifiable number.

Where it stands

Shelved

The criminal complaint was filed by Antel's board under Gabriel Gurméndez, which alleged "departures from and breaches of rules and principles of administrative contracting". Prosecutor Alejandro Machado shelved the case on 22 February 2024: according to Ámbito, he held there had been "sloppiness" and wasteful management of resources, but no crimes. At Antel's request, judge Alejandro Asteggiante allowed a re-examination in May 2024 and prosecutor Enrique Rodríguez shelved the case definitively on 13 February 2025, concluding there was no "deviation or irregularity in the conduct of those investigated liable to criminal sanction". As of this file's closing (August 2026) there are no developments after 13 February 2025.

The open-data cross-reference

Open this set in the explorer

What the state awarded to the bodies and companies named in this file, according to the official Compras Estatales data. It is a cross-reference for scale, not proof of irregularity: it includes contracts nobody questioned.

How this cross-reference was builteverything recorded under the body's buying unit (not only this case) · between 2013 and 2025

$ 97.204.148 Awarded (cross-ref)

43Contracts

33Suppliers

Who was paid

Suppliers ranked by amount awarded in the cross-reference. A contract with several suppliers counts in full against each one: this is a ceiling, not a split.

What it bought

Spending by category, from price times quantity of each awarded item, in the contract currency.

Contracts per year

The detail

30 contracts

The largest contracts in the cross-reference, high to low. Tap one for its record and the link to the official purchase.

Amounts in pesos, normalised. Records with impossible quantities are excluded from the total. Much of the work was financed through a trust managed by Conafin Afisa, so many contracts may not appear as ANTEL purchases in the state procurement portal. What is cross-referenced here is only what Antel recorded under its own name. The criminal case was definitively shelved: no criminal liability has been established against anyone.