In 1933, Porto approved a plan to build a new stadium to accommodate and meet the demands of larger attendances, but the project only moved forward with the purchase of of land in the eastern side of the city in 1947. Designed by Portuguese architects Oldemiro Carneiro and Aires de Sá, the construction of the "Estádio do Futebol Clube do Porto" – better known as "Estádio das Antas" (Antas Stadium) for the neighbourhood where it was built – began in January 1950, one month after the first stone was symbolically laid. Two years later, on 28 May 1952, the stadium was inaugurated with a ceremony, featuring the presence of the President of the Republic Francisco Craveiro Lopes, and a match against Benfica, which Porto lost 2–8. The stadium's initial layout had an open east sector (Marathon Door), which was closed in 1976 with the construction of a two-tier stand that raised the capacity to 70,000. In 1986, works to lower the pitch and build an additional tier in the place of the athletics and cycling track were concluded, setting the capacity to a new maximum of 95,000. As stadium safety regulations became stricter during the following decade, the placing of individual seats brought the capacity of the Estádio das Antas down to 55,000 by 1997.