When in Mexico ... movie theaters, bowling even bullfighting come to Mexico's main soccer stadium.

The Roman Forum was the ancient capital's commerce hub, a marketplace where farmers and urban dwellers met to sell livestock. Located next to the massive Colosseum, the forum also hosted festival games and housed temples to Roman and Greek gods.

Centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire, a group of Mexican investors are hoping to create a new forum in memory of another fallen empire: the Aztecs. The US$80 million project, to be called Foro del Azteca, will consist of a nearly 158,000 square-meter complex packed with 18 movie theaters and 2 IMAX big-screen theaters plus a 3-D movie screen, restaurants, sports clubs, retail stores, bowling alleys, a planetarium with an observatory, ice skating, two discos, a shopping fairway with hundreds of booths, and parking for 4,000 cars.

There's even a cortijo, a small-scale hull-fighting arena. Construction is scheduled to begin this month and the complex should open in early 2005. It's no coincidence that, like Rome, Mexico City's new entertainment mecca will be built next to the 106,000-seat. Estadio Azteca, Latin Americas second-largest soccer stadium and the third largest in the world. While the Mexican stadium saw approximately 2 million soccer fans in 2002, Foro del Azteca expects to attract between eight and 10 million additional fun lovers annually, developers say. The entertainment center expects to increase stadium attendance by four or five Limes its current level, says Manuel Borja, finance director at Grupo Foro del Azteca. "For the stadium it is significant business," he says.

Together with Televisa, the Mexican media giant that owns the stadium, developers plan to include a Televisa video archive library and a soccer museum, as well as offer tours to center field and the player's locker rooms to make use of the stadium's downtime. Planners expect that 10th players and fans, particularly international ones, need a place where they could find everything from food to shopping to entertainment. A direct relationship between the forum and stadium seemed a natural, they say.

The complex will draw power from its own energy plant, which will use gas-power generators to make electricity and then recycle heat from that process to operate chillers for air-conditioning systems, according to Encorp, a U.S. energy technology company that is building the center's $870,000 energy-control systems. It's part of what's called "distributed generation" of energy--building smaller, dedicated plants for businesses in order to control supply and augment, or replace, traditional utilities. Sensitive to Mexico's pollution problems, Encorp says the plant meets the strict, emission standards of the U.S. state of California.

Power on. "The 9.2-megawatt plant, could support 9,000 homes in the United States for a full year," says Ricardo Velasco at Encorp. Being a self-sufficient supplier of energy will save Foro del Azteca approximately $1.5 million annually, says Velasco.

The foro will be based on fun to attract. visitors, developers say. And, although investors say they will boost stadium attendance, the entertainment center itself will be counting on an increase in activity during the soccer season, providing additional diversions to thousands of pumped-up soccer fans streaming from its gates after the game.

Borja insists the entertainment complex will be accessible Lo anyone, even lower-income bleacher habitues. The center will offer a wide range of activities and prices, from a $2.50 movie to upscale restaurants, he says.

Nevertheless, the complex primarily targets middle- to upper-income clientele. Each outlet will be owned independently by a company specialized in the service, such as Mexican movie theater company Cinepolis and retailer Sanborns, controlled by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim. Investors are optimistic about the demand for such a park, since the city has no entertainment centers of this kind or size.

And it could get bigger. Project planners are so confident about Foro del Azteca that they are leaving space for future expansions. "Downsizing is not in their plans at this point," says Velasco.