Learn Spanish (Latin America): El estadio está en las afueras.

In Spanish, you always use estar (here, está) to talk about where something is located, no matter how permanent that location is. The verb ser is used to describe characteristics, but not for physical location.

The current lesson is about al and del. Why don't we use one of those before estadio here?

al means "to the" (combining a + el) and del means "of the" or "from the" (combining de + el). In this sentence, "The stadium" is the subject, so we just need "The" (el). If you wanted to say "I am going to the stadium," you would need the contraction: Voy al estadio.

en often means "in", so why is it translated as "on" here?

The preposition en is very flexible and can mean "in," "on," or "at" depending on the context. While English says "on the outskirts," Spanish says en las afueras (which translates more closely to "in the outskirts").

Is afueras always plural?

Yes! Just like the English word "outskirts" always has an "s" at the end, Spanish uses the plural las afueras to talk about the outer edges of a city. You won't see it used as a singular noun to mean this.