Metropolitano Finals Day Is Set: Both Buenos Aires Titles Decided on 21 November at Parque Olímpico
Buenos Aires now has its dates. The Metropolitano play-offs run through November, and the whole season, men’s and women’s, lands on one day: Saturday 21 November, when both finals are played at Parque Olímpico.
ESPN Hockey, the league’s broadcast partner, published the calendar: quarter-finals on 7 and 8 November, semi-finals on 14 and 15 November, then the double final on the 21st. The promotion and relegation play-offs, the repechajes, run either side of the quarters: first leg on 7 November, second leg on 14 November, with home advantage settled by draw.
What still has to be settled
The format gives the top two in each competition a direct pass to the semi-finals, with third to sixth playing the quarter-final round first. So the last regular-season rounds are really a race for those two byes, and they matter.
On the men’s side the six are already known: San Fernando, Banco Provincia, Ciudad A, Mitre, GEBA and Ducilo, who took the last seat with a winner 26 seconds from the end against Hurling. What Sunday’s closing round decides is the order, and with it who skips the quarter-finals. San Fernando, Banco Provincia and Mitre are fighting for the top two.
On the women’s side, Santa Bárbara have already locked up the No.1 seed and a direct semi-final place, beating Belgrano 1-0 through Josefina Esnaola’s ninth-minute deflection, in a round that also saw the season’s biggest upset, 11th-placed Banco Nación beating second-placed GEBA 2-1. The second bye is still live, with Italiano, Lomas and GEBA in the argument.
One venue, one day, two titles
Playing both finals on the same day at Parque Olímpico is how you turn a league final into an event. The Olympic park crowd gets the women’s final and the men’s final back to back, and Buenos Aires club hockey, which draws its loyalties street by street, gets a neutral stage big enough for it.
Three weekends in November, then. Quarters, semis, and a double-header final on the 21st. We’ll cover the seeding as soon as Sunday’s closing round settles it.
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