The arena was built in 2002 as part of the facilities planned for the Madrid 2012 Olympic bid.

Its central court has three retractable bleachers, allowing the surface to change depending on the type of event.

On 1 November 2012, a human stampede [Wikidata] a Halloween party featuring Steve Aoki resulted in five girls being crushed to death and a further 29 people were injured.

[5] A few days later it was announced that the Madrid Arena was not going to host the Handball World Championship as expected, due to its safety problems.

[6] In 2015 the Spanish writer Saúl Cepeda Lezcano, who worked for the main parties blamed for the tragedy, published the novel Aforo Completo (Full House).